The title Ariosto refers to the sixteenth-century Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto, author of the extraordinary Orlando Furioso, by way of Titian’s c. 1510 Man in a Quilted Sleeve, long considered a portrait of Ariosto himself. Seated in an almost empty Sicilian trattoria in 2026, this drawing’s accidental model was Titian’s portrait brought to life. He was an artwork already, so I photographed him just as he was.

The man in that restaurant was an echo, as is my drawing of him. Long before us both, though, Titian’s portrait had already reverberated through the work of other artists, including the two works of Rembrandt inspired by it: the 1640 Self-Portrait at the Age of Thirty-Four and the 1639 etching Self-Portrait Leaning on a Sill. And perhaps in many other times and places.