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Portrait Of A Young Man (called The Artist) - Antonello Da Messina

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

ABOUT 1430-1479?

I can not ascertain on what grounds the debonair young person whom this picture represents has been identified as the portrait of the artist himself, but such was its title as far back as 1879 when lent by its owner at that time, Henry Willet, to the Royal Academy Exhibition. The sitter is a pretty and care-less young man of about seventeen, seemingly, looking straight at the spectator. No boy of that age, even in the golden age of the Renaissance when the precocity of artists was so astounding, was capable of the mastery which this work displays.

Modern research places 1430 as the year of the artist's birth and his earliest picture of which the date is known is the Salvator Mundi of the National Gallery, painted in 1465. The suavity and accomplishment of the painting in our picture indicate a very much later time than the Salvator Mundi. Antonello must have been middle-aged at the time of its execution, judging from the known dates.

Benjamin Altman Collection:
A Lady Of Rank As Saint Bibiana - Bartholommeo Montagna

The Holy Family - Andrea Mantegna

Portrait Of A Young Man (called The Artist) - Antonello Da Messina

The Crucifixion - Fra Angelico

Madonna And Child - Andrea Del Verrocchio

The Last Communion Of Saint Jerome - Botticelli

Virgin And Child With Angels - Sebastiano Mainardi

Borso D'este - Cosimo Tura

The Virgin And Child With Saint Joseph And A Child Angel - Filippino Lippi

Portrait Of A Man - Dirk Bouts

Read More Articles About: Benjamin Altman Collection




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