An Old Man and His Grandson
c. 1490 · Tempera on panel · Musée du Louvre, Paris
📦 Free shipping on every order, arriving in 4–9 business days with production included. Express ($14.90) at checkout arrives in 4–6 business days.
This print
About this work
- Artist
- Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448–1494)
- Year
- c. 1490
- Medium
- Tempera on panel
- Original size
- 62.7 × 46.3 cm
- Collection
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Movement
- Renaissance
An old man in a red robe and hood looks down tenderly at a fair-haired boy in red who reaches up to his chest and gazes into his face; the man's nose is swollen and misshapen by the skin condition rhinophyma, painted without disguise, and a window behind opens onto a winding road, a pointed blue mountain and trees. Domenico Ghirlandaio painted the panel in tempera in Florence in about 1490. Despite the traditional title, the sitters are unknown; their clothes show they were well-to-do, and the portrait may have been commemorative. A drawing by Ghirlandaio of the same man, once owned by Giorgio Vasari and now in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, may have been made after his death and served as a death mask for the painting. The interior setting with a landscape view had become common in Italian portraiture by the later fifteenth century. Nothing is known of the picture's history before 1880, when the Musée du Louvre acquired it, after it had been turned down by the museum in Berlin because of its condition.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
An old man and a small fair-haired boy in matching reds before a window on a blue mountain, tender and direct, for a living room, landing or family room at 18×24 in natural wood. A warm white, stone or soft green wall; it pairs with The Child's Bath.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Renaissance painting
- Era
- 15th century (c. 1490)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- intimate
- Rooms
- living room, hallway or entryway, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 18×24. Prints at 12×16, 18×24 in — 12×16 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 18×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is An Old Man and His Grandson in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was An Old Man and His Grandson painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
