Portrait of a Man with a Hebrew Tablet
Antonio Campi Italian
Not on view
Most likely painted in the northern Italian city of Cremona, this portrait of a man presenting a tablet with a Hebrew inscription is the only full-scale secular portrait of an individual Jewish sitter thus far identified from the Italian Renaissance. An important cultural and economic center, Cremona was home to a large Jewish community. The prominence and content of the tablet’s inscription is singular and allows for identification of the sitter as a Jew. The carefully written inscription states, Torat Moshe Emet or, "the Torah (or Law) of Moses is the Truth." The subject directs his right hand to the last word of the inscription, in particular the last two letters of the word Emet (Truth): Mem and Tav. Together, these two characters form the word Met, or "Death." It is likely that this portrait was made posthumously to memorialize the sitter.
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