Portrait of a Young Man

Portrait of a Young Man is an oil painting on poplar panel by the Italian Mannerist Rosso Fiorentino, made around 1517 or 1518 and now held in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. A young man appears in half-length, dressed in black and wearing a wide, floppy-brimmed hat, set against a windswept open landscape where a distant town peeks through small trees and bushes. His body turns slightly to the left while his head faces the viewer, and his steady, somewhat languid gaze carries a mysterious, distant quality. The arrangement recalls portraits by Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio, though here the bond between sitter and viewer feels calm and balanced. The hooked, frayed hand pressing against the side and the almost vaporous damask sleeve in the foreground support the attribution to Rosso and seem to pay homage to Raphael's La velata. For a long time it was taken for a self-portrait, but other scholars link it to Iacopo V Appiani, ruler of Piombino, during the painter's long stay in that town.

Painter

Rosso Fiorentino

Date

1517

Medium

oil paint, poplar panel

Dimensions

82 × 60 cm

Museum

Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Berlin

Genre

portrait

Depicts

landscape, unidentified man, young adult man

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