The thoughtful figure placed at the centre is the captain of the guard of the duchy, Giuseppe Malatesta, shown together with his wife Carlotta Montessori and his eleven children. Behind them the young Adeodato portrays his whole family, including his dead brother Pio, immortalised in the work he himself is painting. Although it is not certain when it was painted, experts tend to date the work to between 1828 and 1833, when the painter was completing his training with sojourns in cities such as Venice and Florence. Like so many artists of his time, from 1860 on Adeodato began to experiment with photography so as to produce more lifelike renderings, which also allowed him to abandon defined outlines and enhance the role of chiaroscuro contrasts. This trend is evident in his Self-portrait, completed at a time when the painter already had a successful career behind him, including important appointments, and was about to be named President of the Three Emilian Academies. On the lower right of this self-portrait the signature of the painter can be made out, together with a dedication to his friend Emilio Righetti, an outstanding Modena politician around the time of the Unification of Italy.