It is the painter's best-known image, somewhat idealized, elaborated in the last phase of his life probably in order to be diffused for future memory. In fact, it soon became a reference for numerous pictorial derivations and in the prints that circulated around the time of the artist's death.
In this way, the fame of this image over time has surpassed that of the Self-portrait with the palette that Diotti himself had executed in 1821 to pay homage to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, documented here on the side by the engraving that Angelo Gravagni derived from it and by a poetic commentary.
The painter Luigi Quarenghi (Casalmaggiore, 1810-1882) - after having studied at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo under the direction of Diotti - collaborated on the last works of the master on the Casalmaggiore area and was close to him in the last months of his life that he lived in this house.
This portrait was made in 1844 under the supervision of Diotti himself, who is associated with a peculiar technical aspect given by the dark pen and brush marks, with a very free stroke, which mark the contours and some details of the face. Whether it is the re-emergence, through the thin and thin layer of paint, of an underlying drawing, rather than a deliberate final intervention, the effect that results, at a distance, is that of mobility and vivacity of the facial features also found in other portraits made by Quarenghi and exhibited in another room of the Museum.
After working with Coghetti in Rome and Savona, the artist returned to Casalmaggiore, where he continued to work as a portraitist for the local bourgeoisie.
