This portrait signed by Lucia Anguissola is acknowledged as the most important of the few works produced by Sofonisba’s younger sister. In keeping with Lombard painting of the period, she depicts this bald, bearded, ageing gentleman in the immediate foreground, seated in an armchair and turning slightly to gaze inquisitively at the spectator. He is dressed in a roomy gown with puffed sleeves tapering at the wrist and a brown fur trimming, probably otter. In his left hand he holds the staff of Asclepius, which, like his clothing, is an unmistakeable symbol of his doctor’s profession. The two books lying on a nearby table behind him are the only detail that gives an idea of the setting.

There are close similarities between Lucia’s painting and Campi’s Castellano Cotta (signed and dated 1553) in the compositional arrangement and sense of colour, as well as in an expressive device that is also found in Sofonisba’s Giovanni Battista Caselli: the left eyebrow is slightly raised to emphasise the sitter’s vivacity. As in Bernardino’s painting, here the textures of the clothing and hair and the facial features are meticulously rendered. In keeping with Sofonisba’s subtle pictorial construction, however, Lucia creates an enveloping atmosphere with a softer appearance than Campi’s more homogeneous lighting. Despite a few flaws in the perspectival drawing of the armrests, the details are executed with surprising care; some are particularly expressive, such as the serpent -with a menacing, live presence- entwined around the staff. The painstaking depiction of its scaly skin and head emphasise the psychological intensity conveyed by the facial expression of the physician, who strikes us as a perceptive, keen observer whose eyes are as penetrating as those of the reptile that symbolises him.

Vasari identified this doctor as Pietro Maria, whom scholars linked to Bianca Ponzoni, the mother of Sofonisba and her siblings. Indeed, this helped account for the sitter’s "familiar" air and the very existence of the portrait. However, the true identity of the doctor was established in 1994 by Rossana Sacchi, who ruled out the existence of a Pietro Maria in the middle of the century but was able to document that of the physician Pietro Manna, a member of a prominent local family possibly related to the Ponzoni, who died on 17 August 1560. Sacchi furthermore noted the resemblance between this likeness and that of Manna in an anonymous medal struck in 1550. Perhaps Vasari -or possibly the editor of the second edition of the Lives- misspelled the physician’s name (mistaking Manna for Maria), giving rise to longstanding confusion.

It is not known when and under what circumstances the portrait found its way to Spain. Amilcare Anguissola probably sent it to Philip II in order to carry on enjoying royal favour. In 1686 it was recorded as being in the Real Alcázar and, following the fire that ravaged the royal household, it passed to the Buen Retiro palace, where it was attributed to the Venetian school and only later to Lucia (1794: "Lucia Anguisola Veneciana)". In 1857 it was listed in an inventory of the Prado (Lucia "Anguisola or Angociola)".

Ruiz Gómez, Leticia, 'Lucia Anguissola. Pietro Manna, médico de Cremona' En:. Historia de dos pintoras: Sofonisba Anguissola y Lavinia Fontana, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2019, p.124-125 n.17