Beneath a jaunty beret, piercing blue eyes gaze out with a haughty air. The identity of this portrait’s sitter remains unknown, but his fastidiously groomed red beard lends the portrait a touch of personality. Fashionable garments and accessories, including the gloves in the gentleman’s right hand, proclaim his social status. His left hand grasps the basket hilt of a sword that signals his military associations. At the Augsburg court of Ferdinand I—later crowned Holy Roman Emperor—Jakob Seisenegger specialized in portraiture, emulating the work of the Venetian court painter Titian with naturalistic likenesses that ennobled their subjects.