Portrait of a Young Man

Artist Attributed to Raphael Italian, 1483 - 1520

Dateca. 1510

Place of OriginItaly

MediumOil on canvas transferred from panel

DimensionsStretcher: 16 1/2 x 13 in. (41.9 x 33 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 24 1/2 x 20 x 3 1/4 in. (62.2 x 50.8 x 8.3 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineThe Hyde Collection Trust, 1952

Object number1971.36

On View

On view

Collections

European Paintings & Sculpture

MarkingsOn reverse of frame: Top edge in white paint: "ITV 107". Top edge in blue crayon: "107". Top edge in black ink: "15.924". On reverse of stretcher: Top left, paper label: "No.21324/13 x 16 1/2/PICTURE". Top center, paper label: "26". Top right, in crayon: "4392/41552".

DescriptionAn unidentified young man with long, full hair faces his body towards a light source at the viewer’s left but turns his head towards the viewer and stares. He is represented in bust length wearing a black loose cap (later called a raffaella) and gown; the collar of his white chemise, visible along his neckline, protrudes from his gown. Located immediately in front of a neutrally colored, gray-brown wall, on which he casts a shadow, he holds no identifying attribute; nothing distracts from his intelligent alertness and engaging glance.

The painting’s overall condition is good. Originally on panel, it was later transferred to canvas, and at some point the sitter’s hair was altered. Long hair was stylish on Florentine men in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

The question of attribution has been raised repeatedly, with a number of scholars rejecting the attribution to Raphael. Among them, those identifying the artist as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio include Sydney Freedberg, 1941; Sotheby’s, 1988; and Everett Fahy, 1988. Jürg Meyer zur Capellen, in his 2001, three-volume catalogue raisonné on Raphael rejects The Hyde portrait’s attribution to Raphael but adds no reattribution. Other scholars maintain the attribution to Raphael: William Valentiner, 1938; Oskar Fischel, 1948; Leopold Dussler, 1966 and 1971; and Wilhelm Kelber, 1979.

Text by Penny Howell Jolly, Professor Emerita of Art History, Skidmore College, February 2026Exhibition HistoryLondon, Arundel Society, 1904 (as by Raphael, and lent by "Executors of the late Whitney, New York, now deposited with Messrs. Agnews and Sons")

"Raphael and America," National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Jan. 9 - May 8, 1983.

"Family Pride: The Italian Renaissance House and its Furnishing", The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY, April 12-May 20,1984.

"Growing Up in a Renaissance Palazzo: Childhood in Italy 1400-1600," Charles R. Wood Gallery, The Hyde Collection, Oct. 5, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025.Provenancebefore 1897, Florence, Italy, Volpi (dealer)
by 1898, London, England, Thomas Agnew & Sons (dealer)
New York, NY, William Collins Whitney
1904, London, England, Thomas Agnew & Sons (dealer)
1938 Glens Falls, NY, Mrs. Charlotte P. Hyde
1952, Glens Falls, NY, The Hyde Collection Trust