Portrait de Francesco Maria della Rovere

The boy in this portrait is about 13, and he holds a helmet almost as if he already knows what his life will be. He is Francesco Maria della Rovere, nephew of the future Pope Julius II, and he would grow up to be Duke of Urbino and one of the most restless soldiers of his age, hired and dismissed by popes and by the Republic of Venice in turn. Here, around 1502, none of that has happened yet. The painting is given to the young Giorgione, working in Venice, who dresses the child in black with a red cape thrown over one shoulder and lets the polished metal of the helmet catch the light. The face still has the softness of a boy who has not yet been to war.