Portrait of Pietro Aretino

Italian author Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) ingratiated himself with Renaissance princes by having his portrait painted and delivered to their doorstep. According to the English art critic Roger E. Fry, he was a professional flatterer, bully, and tout. Enea Vico gave the imposing Aretino the aspect of a Roman emperor and framed him within a medallion. In this context the grotesque elements lodged in the margin--masks, animal heads, ripe fruits and vegetables--may function like the marginalia of illuminated manuscripts; that is, as expressions of covert appetites and desires.