Portrait of Ottavio Strada

This striking painting by Jacopo Tintoretto captures a seventeen-year-old boy named Ottavio Strada in a pretty unusual, almost dreamlike setup. Instead of just sitting there for a normal portrait, the young man is right in the middle of a symbolic story about wealth and destiny. Standing tall in the center, Ottavio wears a very dark, elegant jacket with delicate white ruffles peeking out at his neck and wrists. He has this sort of thoughtful, maybe even slightly distracted look on his face, turning his gaze away from a golden statue of a naked woman Venus down in the left corner. It is like he is choosing to look past earthly desires or maybe just focusing on what is coming next. And what is coming next is pretty wild. Floating down from the upper right, this beautiful, glowing woman, who represents Fortune, is handing him a massive horn of plenty. It is overflowing with old gold and silver coins that seem to spill right toward his open hand. The whole scene has a really interesting flow to it. Your eyes kinda move from the smooth, warm skin of the statue, up through Ottavio’s dark silhouette, and then follow the curve of the cornucopia up to Fortune’s bright figure. Tintoretto used deep shadows to make the characters pop, but if you look past Ottavio’s shoulder, there is a sudden opening to the outside. In the background, under a hazy sky, you can see the crumbling remains of some old Roman ruins. All those coins and the old statue actually hint at his real life, since his dad was a famous collector who taught him all about ancient history. There is also some Latin text painted in the top left corner, listing his name and bragging a bit about his achievements. It is a beautiful mix of a real person and a fantasy story, showing a kid right on the edge of a very rich future.