Lotto: Young Man with a Book face swap

Where this one comes from

Lorenzo Lotto painted this in the later 1520s, in the middle of a career spent moving between Venice, Bergamo and a string of provincial towns because he could never hold the Venetian market against Titian. He kept an account book of his expenses that still survives, and it records a working life of small commissions and chronic shortage. He died around 1556 as a lay brother in the monastery at Loreto.

What is in the picture

A black beret, a slashed doublet of black and white over a green ground, and a book held part-open in one hand. The face is lit from the left and the head is tipped a fraction, and the expression is the reason people collect Lotto: his sitters look anxious, preoccupied or faintly put out, in a century when portraits were supposed to convey composure. Nobody has satisfactorily explained whether that was his psychology or theirs.

When people use it

For visible second thoughts. It suits the message you typed and did not send, and it is the right face for agreeing to something while clearly reconsidering.

How your face lands in it

A three-quarter head under a soft beret, lit from the left with a fair amount of shadow on the far side of the face. The beret takes care of the hairline. Bring a photograph with some directional light if you can — a completely flat one will sit slightly brighter than the picture around it.

Portrait of a Young Man with a Book — Lorenzo Lotto, c. 1526–1527. Lorenzo Lotto died around 1556, so the painting has been in the public domain for centuries and a faithful reproduction of it acquires no new rights. Source

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