Retrato de un caballero

For a long time this knight was believed to be the work of Albrecht Durer. Someone had painted the German master's monogram onto the canvas and hidden the real artist's own signature underneath. Only later did the true author, the Venetian Vittore Carpaccio, come back to light, together with a date of 1510. The picture is often called the earliest full-length portrait in Western painting. The young man stands in armour among a dense scatter of plants and animals, each carrying meaning: a hawk striking a heron overhead, his stiff upright pose recalling a tomb effigy, quiet hints that he may already be dead. In the distance he rides again from a fortress toward battle.