Shown from the waist up on the far side of a table or ledge, a man with a pale, olive complexion rests his arm alongside a small white dog lying on the ledge in this vertical portrait painting. The scene has an overall honey-colored hue over a palette dominated by blacks, olive green, and gold-tinged ivory white. To our right in the composition, the man’s body is angled to our left and he looks out at us from the corners of his dark eyes. He has a straight nose and high cheekbones. A mustache and trimmed beard frame his pink lips, which curve slightly up at the corners. His brown hair is brushed back from a pointed widow’s peak on his forehead, and it blends into the dark olive-green curtain hanging behind him. The high corners of his black robe are connected with a gold chain, and the robe comes to a V over a white shirt. His left hand, on our right, rests on the ledge, near the bottom of the composition. A small dog with pointed ears and shaggy, ivory-white fur is tucked behind the man’s arm, its left paw between the man’s thumb and forefinger. A shaft of black and gold indicate the hilt of a sword, presumably hung from the man’s waist. To our left, a dusty rose-pink book stands on a brown box. Upon closer inspection, an inscription has been painted in black on the upper right corner of the box: “VICO LO OPUS AETA.” Beyond the book, a view of a landscape through an open window fills the upper left quadrant of the composition. A person wearing a long brown robe stands on a path that zigzags into the distance, past dark green bushes and trees. Ice-blue, jagged mountains line the horizon. The sky above the mountains is parchment white and bands of slate-blue clouds fill in the top of our view.