c. 1325-1379

Italian painter who was the first to depict eyeglasses. The painting was a 1352 portrait of Hugh of Provence, showing its subject holding a pair of glasses—which at that time, less than a century after the invention of spectacles, were regarded as a status symbol. Among Modena's other works are 40 panels that depict the monks of a Dominican chapter house reading, writing, and praying; an altarpiece commissioned by Charles IV of Bohemia; and a portrait of Cardinal Nicholas of Rouen.