Old Man with a Young Boy (detail) Portrait of an Old man with a Young Boy

Ghirlandaio is best known for his frescoes, in which he often set religious subjects in a secular setting and in which he included recognizable portraits. His largest commission, completed in 1490, depicting scenes from the lives of the Virgin and St John the Baptist, was in the Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Ironically, in An Old Man and his Grandson, one of his best works, the identity of the protagonists remains a mystery. This naturalistic double portrait is an intimate and moving portrayal of a tender relationship between doting age and attendant youth. The loving young boy is oblivious to the old man\u27s unfortunate physiognomy, a symptom of rhinophyma, from which he suffered.https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/saskia/3299/thumbnail.jp