Portrait of a Young Man

In the years around 1505 to 1510, educated Italians liked to argue over which art came closer to life, painting or sculpture. A statue could be walked around and seen from every side, and painters looked for ways to answer that. This young man may be one of those answers. He swings round towards us, so that we see his back and his face at the same moment, and the Alte Pinakothek suggests the pose can be read as a comment on that rivalry. The museum counts this turning figure among Giorgione's most inventive portrait types. It also plays on more than one sense. The fox fur and the quilted satin sleeve are painted to invite touch, and the quick turn of the head suggests he has just heard something. The name attached to the panel has moved over the years, with Sebastiano del Piombo and Palma Vecchio both proposed, and the museum now gives it to Giorgione. It came from the electors' picture gallery at Schleissheim Palace.