File:Hendrick Frans van Lint Portrait of Giacomo Van Lint.jpg

This charming work appears to be the only accepted portrait by Hendrick van Lint. The artist has chosen as his subject his son Giacomo, an accomplished artist himself, who is shown here as an elegant young man underneath an arched opening. It has been suggested (see Literature, Vici 1987) that the picture was executed in the Christian Jubilee year 1750, which would make Giacomo twenty-seven years of age when he sat for the portrait. In the background is a clearly recognized St. Peter's Square, perhaps a reference to both the Jubilee year, and the fact that Giacomo was born in Rome. Yet a further reference to the Eternal City is found in the painted bas relief sculpture beneath Giacomo. This has been recognized as a sculpture by Vincenzo Pacetti, which is located in Rome at the Palazzo Altieri (see H. Honour, "Vinceno Pacetti", in The Connoisseur, November 1960, p. 177).

In this small composition, van Lint has framed his son in a bay window, as was the custom of many Northern painters of the seventeenth century, and can be likened to similar compositions by Gerard Dou, van Mieris and many others. It was very likely painted in the autumn, as suggested by the cluster of grapes found in the top left cluster of trees.