Portrait of a Young Man

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Artist: Giovanni Bellini (Italian, 1430–1516)
Medium: oil on poplar panel
Size: painted surface: 30 x 23 cm (11 13/16 x 9 1/16 in.); original panel: 30.9 x 24.8 cm (12 3/16 x 9 3/4 in.); overall (with wood strips added in 1944): 32.9 x 27.1 cm (12 15/16 x 10 11/16 in.); framed: 55.56 x 53.98 x 6.19 cm (21 7/8 x 21 1/4 x 2 7/16 in.)
Museum: National Gallery of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

The head and shoulders of a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man fills this vertical portrait painting. The man’s shoulders are angled to our left, and he looks off in that direction with light green eyes. He has a straight nose, a long philtrum over pale pink lips, a cleft chin, and the suggestion of a five o’clock shadow. He has brown hair and bangs under a brimless, square-crowned cap.

His hair curls under along the bottom to create a diagonal sweep from his bangs, over his ears, and to the back of his shoulders. The edge of a white undergarment is visible above the high neck of his black coat, which is pleated vertically down the front. The man is shown behind a ledge painted to look like red, brown, and black marble and the background is clear blue sky. The artist signed the front center of the ledge, “Joannes.bellinus.”