Half-length portrait, standing, resting his right elbow on a parapet, a set-square and dividers in his right hand; black coat with wide brown fur collar over a red doublet. The sitter in this portrait is traditionally identified as an architect because of his attributes of a set-square and compass, but he could equally be a military engineer or a mathematician. For a long time the painting was thought to be a portrait of the architect Andreas Palladio, on account of the inscription on the parapet, however the third, fourth and fifth lines of text are quite clearly later additions to the original inscription.