Kehinde Wiley
Portrait of a Florentine Nobleman

• What was your first reaction to this artwork? Why do you think you had the reaction?
  
• Describe the colors and details in this painting. How did the artist use the space? How does your eye move through the artwork? What choices did the artist make to make that happen?
• How is this painted portrait different from a photograph of a person?

Portrait of a Florentine Nobleman, based on Francesco Salviati’s sixteenth-century painting, features Shontay Haynes of St. Louis, Missouri. Apart from her pose (borrowed from the source painting) all of the decisions about presentation—from the subject’s outfit to her tattoos—reinforce a sense of agency and self-creation. As the painted floral patterns weave over the top of this confident heroine, Wiley affirms Haynes’s belonging within an often exclusive art historical tradition.

• Compare Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of a Florentine Nobleman to the original sixteenth-century painting. What did Wiley change and what did he leave the same? Why do you think the artist made the choices he did?
• How have Black Americans been portrayed in visual media in the history of the United States? How does this painting compare?
• How do social inequities influence our lived experiences? How does privilege influence justice?