AKU-2024-019

Studio Bildschirm, Berlin

The Founders (Florentine Double Portrait)

2023

Oil and tempera on panel

75 × 55 cm

Acquisition

Purchased, 2024

Curator’s Note

The panel follows Domenico Ghirlandaio's conventions for Florentine merchant portraiture: two figures in three-quarter view against a landscape, the elder slightly behind and higher, the younger turned toward him. The cityscape visible through the arch behind them is San Francisco, rendered with the same topographic specificity Ghirlandaio brought to Florence. The two subjects are Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever, depicted at approximate ages 28 and 37 respectively. The panel was painted in 2023.