Homem com gorjal e boina emplumada

Around 1626 Rembrandt was about 20, newly back in his hometown of Leiden and setting up as an independent painter. This small oak panel is thought to be the earliest single figure he ever painted. It is not a portrait of anyone in particular but a tronie, a study of a type. A young man wears a steel gorget, the throat armour of a soldier, topped with a soft plumed cap he would never really have worn with it. Rembrandt was already testing how light catches metal and skin. X-rays have found another picture underneath, the head of an old man, scraped down and painted over, since the young artist could not yet afford to waste a good panel.