Carlo Maratta (1625–1713), Portrait of a Man at the Age of 24, 1663. Oil on canvas, 63 × 52 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
This portrait, painted in 1663 by Carlo Maratta, records both the likeness of a young Roman nobleman and a key moment in the evolution of seventeenth-century fashion. The sitter wears the late form of the falling band collar, which had replaced the elaborate ruff earlier in the century. Trimmed with delicate Venetian lace, the collar exemplifies the refinement of Roman aristocratic dress at a time when clothing remained a central marker of rank and taste.
The falling band had developed in response to new fashions in men’s hair. By the 1660s, long flowing locks made the earlier broad collars impractical. Maratta’s sitter shows the adapted form: the collar narrower at the sides and softened to merge with the hair, the front extended to balance the composition. The portrait thus stands at a transitional point between the decline of the ruff and expansive falling bands, and the later adoption of the French cravat and jabot.
Maratta himself was then establishing his reputation in Rome. Trained in the circle of Andrea Sacchi, he absorbed the clarity and restraint of the classical tradition while bringing to portraiture a polished naturalism suited to aristocratic and papal patrons. Within a decade he would become the dominant painter of late seventeenth-century Rome, favoured by successive popes and renowned for his large altarpieces. This early portrait, intimate in scale, shows the artist’s ability to combine the accurate observation of a sitter with a keen awareness of contemporary fashion, anchoring the likeness within the social codes of its time.