Portrait of Ugolino Martelli

The painting illustrates how ancient Greek texts could contribute to the creation of a cultured identity among the young aristocrats of the Italian city-states. The book in front of the sitter is a copy of Homer's Iliad, opened to the beginning of Book 9. The painting also contains a copy of Virgil and shows Ugolino's left arm resting on a work by Pietro Bembo, suggesting that the young nobleman h…