Portrait of a Young Man

This three-quarter bust shows a young man looking straight out at the viewer while seated in a room with brown walls. He wears a black beret pushed back toward his neck, a white shirt and a dark fur mantle over his shoulders, and his long, wavy hair falls almost to his chest. Behind him, through an opening, a landscape of trees, lakes and a small fortification near some mountains comes into view. The sitter's identity has never been confirmed. Many scholars have long thought the figure is a self-portrait by Raphael, since his features are compatible with those of the only undoubted self-portrait of the painter, the one in The School of Athens in the Vatican, which Vasari identified as such. Nothing in the picture, however, reveals the sitter's profession; he appears simply as a richly dressed and self-assured young man. In terms of technique, Raphael combines the upright poise, the gesture and the softened contours typical of the High Renaissance. The contrast between the white shirt and the dark fur gives the figure a strong presence, while the left hand, placed near the heart, suggests an intense, emotional stance. The idealised proportions probably reflect his study of classical sculpture. The painting reached Poland in 1798 with Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, together with Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine. During the Nazi occupation in 1939, Hans Frank seized several works from the collection, this one among them. After the war, the Leonardo and the Rembrandt were recovered, but Raphael's portrait was not; it was last seen in 1945, and its whereabouts remain unknown. For this reason it is regarded by many as the most important painting missing since the Second World War. Its empty original frame is displayed in Kraków as a reminder of that loss. The picture has also appeared in popular culture, including The Simpsons and the film The Monuments Men.

Painter

Raphael

Date

1513

Medium

oil paint, panel

Dimensions

59 × 75 cm

Museum

Czartoryski Museum, Kraków

Movement

High Renaissance

Genre

portrait

Depicts

young adult man

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