Articles containing Italian-language text. They sit in an interior, illuminated against a darkened wall. A drawing by Ghirlandaio entitled Head of an Old Man , once owned by Giorgio Vasari , portrays the same man as in the painting. Beginning with Fra Filippo Lippi 50 years earlier, the device of the window opening onto a meticulously detailed landscape - originally borrowed from Flemish painting - had often been employed by Florentine portraitists. Ghirlandaio has presented the portrait in a naturalistic and sympathetic fashion, at variance with physiognomic theory of the era, which maintained a connection between external appearances and internal truths. This show of affection endows the picture with emotional qualities beyond those expected from a traditional dynastic portrait.