Portrait of a Man

This is a young man's painting, made around 1503 when Raphael himself was barely 20 and still shaking off the manner of his teacher Perugino. For a long time no one was sure it was even his. Over the years the panel was handed to Holbein, to Perugino, to Pinturicchio, and only slowly argued back to Raphael. A cleaning in 1911 stripped away layers of later overpaint and brought the original face into view again, with its careful, almost shy modelling of light on the cheek. Who the sitter is remains unknown. Some have guessed the face belongs to the poet Serafino Aquilano, but no name has ever held.