Portrait of a Young Man
Raphael·1513
Historical Context
The Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1513–14), known from the Czartoryski collection in Kraków before being stolen by Nazi forces in 1939 and never recovered, is one of the most famous missing works in art history. Known through copies and early photographs, the painting depicts a youthful figure of extraordinary vitality in the three-quarter pose Raphael had perfected in Rome. The loss of this work — presumably destroyed or hidden — represents an irreplaceable gap in our understanding of Raphael's portrait achievement at his Roman maturity. Efforts to trace it have continued for decades, making it the subject of one of the most sustained art recovery investigations of the postwar period.
Technical Analysis
Known from reproductions, the painting displayed Raphael's supreme gift for idealized yet psychologically penetrating portraiture, with the fur-trimmed costume and architectural background creating an image of cultivated youth.
