Three Renaissance portraits of the same man—painted decades apart—show how hands can quietly reveal a life’s unfolding character.
Bindo Altoviti (1491–1557), born into privilege and educated at the papal court, later became one of Rome’s most influential papal bankers. He moved easily among artists, intellectuals, and political powerbrokers. Raphael, Francesco Salviati, and Jacopino del Conte each painted him at a different stage of life. When we look closely at these portraits, the story emerges not from his face alone, but from the shifting language of his hands.
Raphael presents the young Bindo Altoviti with his right hand resting lightly on his heart—a gesture of idealism, openness, and youthful self-assurance.
By midlife, in Salviati’s portrait, Bindo’s hands are clasped tightly and pushed to the lower edge of the canvas. The once-open youth has become a polished but cautious power broker in a volatile political world.
In old age, del Conte depicts Bindo Altoviti with both hands fully extended—one holding a glove, the other pointing toward a work of art. The gesture is expansive, declarative, and outward-facing. The banker has become the confident connoisseur.
Across these canvases, the changing position of Bindo’s hands mirrors the changing currents of his life—youthful idealism, political maneuvering, and finally the calm authority of an aging patron.
Bindo was not merely a financier; he was intimately connected to the artists of his time. He commissioned frescoes for his Roman palazzo and suburban villa, and he acted as a friend as well as a patron. When Michelangelo fled Florence, Bindo sheltered him in Rome—one of many stories that reveal the depth of his ties to the artistic world.
This post expands on an earlier note, Different Hands, Different Spirits, now enriched by showing the full portraits. Seeing the hands in conversation with the eyes makes their expressive power unmistakable.
Thank you for your fascinating tutorial on the ever changing display of appendages used to collect, create, communicate .
Your hands expressed your joy capering along the shore of Lake Michigan.
His face expressions being similarly interesting: from curious-sceptical to distrustful and further to serious- friendly – my opinion!
Brigitte
I like your characterization of Altoviti’s expression by as painted by Raphael: Curious-sceptical, a good attitude for a young person to have. His middle-aged expression, Nina thinks as tense, I see it as calculating which implies ‘distrustful’. The last one, Nina sees as relaxed. I see it as I see it as the culmination of his life’s experience, no longer a curious-skeptical youth, no longer a calculating power broker but having reached a state of wisdom, acceptance and kindness.
Thank you for adding the information on Altoviti’s facial expression.
This is like an art class. Thank you