The identity of the sitter is confirmed by another portrait by Cristofano Altissimo (q.v.) of 1565 in the Clovio series in the Uffizi, Florence which bears an inscription giving the identity of the sitter.  This composition, head and shoulders only, is based on the Lotto prototype. The same sitter also appears in a Portrait of two Cardinals in the Accademia, Venice, where the face is shown in reverse. Grimani was the son of the Venetian Doge, Antonio Grimani (1426-1523) and Catarina Loredan, herself a sister of the Doge Leonardo Loredan, known from the celebrated portrait by Giovanni Bellini in the National Gallery, London. Grimani lived in Venice where he was a Cardinal and he was also Patriarch of nearby Aquileia and Bishop of Ceneda. The date of the painting is based on the apparent age of the sitter who is rather older in the Altissimo portrait. The other two versions of this composition have also been attributed to Lotto in the past, but unfortunately that in the Royal collection at Hampton Court is in poor condition.  There are a small number of other portraits of men seated in front of tables covered by carpets, including one in the National Gallery in London. In recent years, however, there has been a tendency to abandon the traditional attributions to Lotto in favour of anonymous Venetian School of the early sixteenth century.

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