Knight of Malta (self-portrait?), a bust-length portrait in a twelve-sided frame

Ottavio Leoni was a Roman painter and draughtsman active in the early 17th century, known for his portrait drawings executed in colored chalks on paper. Working during the reigns of Popes Clement VIII and Urban VIII, he documented the faces of Rome's intellectual and ecclesiastical elite with precise lineation and restrained color. His small-scale heads, often inscribed with sitter names and dates, functioned as both independent artworks and preparatory studies for larger commissions.

Rome