This portrait represents Anton Francesco degli Albizzi (1486–1537), a political figure who participated in the establishment of the Florentine Republic. He was described as overbearing, haughty, and restless and was beheaded for treason by Cosimo I de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany.

 The rhetorical grandeur with which Sebastiano del Piombo has imbued the portrait demonstrates why he is considered one of the major figures in High Renaissance painting. According to the famous 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari, Sebastiano trained with Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini in Venice and was also influenced by Renaissance painter Giorgione. In 1511, Sebastiano went to Rome, where he formed both a friendship and professional relationship with Michelangelo, under whose guidance Sebastiano developed a distinctive, powerful, and original personal style. Vasari praised this particular work, writing that the artist made it appear "to be not painted but really alive. . . . The head and hands of the portrait were things truly marvelous, to say nothing of the beautiful execution of the velvets, the linings, the satins, and all the other parts of the picture . . . all Florence was amazed at this portrait of Anton Francesco."