The Tailor

The Tailor (Italian: Il sarto) is an oil on canvas painting by Italian painter Giovanni Battista Moroni, from 1565-1570. It is a portrait of a member of the Marinoni family, who is represented as a tailor practising his art during the work day. The painting is held in the National Gallery, in London. History Portraits of important persons and personages of Italy — merchants, aristocrats, and nobles — were the representational speciality of the artist Giovanni Battista Moroni, given that his influences included Tiziano and Lorenzo Lotto, and painterly tutelage under Moretto da Brescia. It is not known who commissioned the painting; it is assumed that it was a representative of the Marinoni family of Desenzano al Serio who, having ceased his artistic activity some time before, had moved to Venice for trade. Probably the same person, who is portrayed here elegantly dressed for the occasion, was not a tailor but a seller of pannine (wool fabric sold in pieces), in fact the painter depicts the gesture of cutting a fabric and not its packaging. The quality of the fabrics was very important in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was certainly not possible for everyone to have clothes made with high quality woolen fabrics, therefore the pannine seller was certainly a person who, although not noble, enjoyed a certain economic comfort. It was Marco Boschini in his literary work La carta del navegar pittoresco who identified the painting with the tailoring activity. Description Moroni worked on many paintings of religious nature, but became more famous for his portraits. The Tailor is one of the works that best represents his art. Moroni was among the first painters to depict important people of the wealthy bourgeoisie, contrary to the custom of his time, which exclusively portrayed the financial or ecclesiastical aristocracy.