Jeune saint avec une épée

This calm young saint, sword in hand before a classical balustrade, was never meant to stand on his own. He was one panel of an enormous double-sided altarpiece Perugino began in 1502 for the high altar of the church of Sant'Agostino in Perugia, a work he kept returning to for more than 20 years, right up to his death. Perugino was the teacher of the young Raphael, and this serene, evenly lit manner is much of what Raphael first learned from him. The altarpiece was later broken up and scattered, and this piece came to France in the requisitions of 1797, when Napoleon's Italian campaign stripped churches of their paintings and sent them north. Even the saint's name got lost along the way, and scholars still argue over whether he is Saint Martin or Saint Julian.