The sober, direct sitter holds a tray of rings that identifies his profession. He may be Giovanni Pietro Crivelli, a Milanese jeweler whom Lorenzo Lotto knew in Rome, where Lotto probably painted the canvas.

While greatly damaged, this portrait still displays the soft atmospheric treatment and lyrical mood of the Venetian school that inspired Lotto early on. Giorgione's poetic landscapes provided the example for the background trees at the right. The landscape originally continued on the left side of the sitter, but it was removed earlier in this century for unknown reasons.

This painting provides a rare opportunity to look at an artist's working process. The smeared paint of the background shows that Lotto adjusted the position of the sitter's left arm while the paint was still wet.