Although long considered to be by Jacopo Bassano, the composition and handling of this fine portrait link it closely to the Tintoretto workshop. It probably dates from about 1580. The arrangement with the curtain, grandiose column and base, and the cloth-covered table with a crucifix and a folded letter, finds particularly close parallels in the work of Domenico Tintoretto, the son of Jacopo. Purchased in Genoa in 1830 by the Scottish painter and dealer Andrew Wilson, this portrait was part of one of the earliest batches of Old Master paintings acquired by the Royal Institution in Edinburgh, which formed part of the founding collection of the National Gallery of Scotland.