Date
The date of a painting is usually hard to find. This fact creates many problem to art critics, who have to date a painter’s works according to his stylistic evolution. If they are lucky they may find some documentation (contracts, direct or indirect evidences…). Sometimes in portraits it is possible to date the painting because the author writes somewhere the age of the person he portraied.
In this case Antonello wrote the date in a scroll ornament on the balaustrade (this was quite usual in the portraits he made).