16TH CENTURY FERRARESE PAINTER Portrait of Alfonso II D'Este Inscribed top left: ALFONSUS SECUNDUS DUX FERRARRIE 1527 FONTIBONI MAXETI PATRONUS. Oil on canvas, 190X115 cm The canvas depicts Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, in richly elaborate armour that is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, with his arm resting on a cannon in honour of the military strength due to the modern artillery with which Alfonso had provided his duchy. As far as attribution is concerned, the name Cesare Aretusi (Modena, 1549 ; Parma, 1612), court painter in Parma but also active as portrait painter for Alfonso II, is proposed here. With regard to the inscription, it should be noted that a Fontebono Masetti from Modena appears in the Cronaca del Lancellotti De Bianchi, to whom Alfonso is said to have acted as patron, but bears an older date (cf. Introduction to the Cronaca di Modena: 1509-1555 di Tommasino de' Bianchi detto de' Lancellotti, edited by R. Bussi and C. Giovannini, Mantua 2015; https://www.fondazionedimodena.it/wpcontent/uploads/2021/05/Introduzione-alla-Cronaca-di-Modena-di-Lancellotti.pdf).