Portrait of a Youth (Antonio Broccardo), Budapest Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli) (c.1478-1510)

Description of Giorgione’s Portrait of a Young Man

Full of unsolved mysteries, Barbarelli da Castelfranco Giorgione’s Portrait of a Young Man is not at all like typical Renaissance portraits. A characteristic feature of Renaissance portrait painting is first and foremost the direct view of the portrayed man on the viewer, the emergence of a sense of "pursuit" of the posing model by the viewer from all points of view.

On the contrary, the young man in Giorgione’s painting has his gaze lowered, which creates an ineffable atmosphere of melancholy, existential sadness. Influencing the "emotional receptors" of the viewer, the artist paints an amazing image of a young man, which attracts the gaze of the audience.

Ideal man by the established image of artists of the Renaissance is depicted in this portrait, at the same time his atypical, non-standard appearance and manner striking with its boldness.

The famous technique of "smoothing out the shapes", the growing contours - sfumato, invented by Leonardo da Vinci is applied in painting this portrait, the whole canonical image of a young boy is very soft, evokes a sense of lightness. A study of the painting by X-rays revealed that the young man’s gaze was originally directed toward the landscape that served as the background of the painting.

There has been much debate about the origins of the painting, just as it was not easy for the community of artists and art historians to determine the identity of the portrait. One theory has it that Antonio Broccardo posed for Portrait of a Young Man. Another version depicts Vitorio Capello, as evidenced by the presence of the letter "V" on his hat.

Some doubts also arise when parsing the authorship of this portrait. Giorgione’s brushwork is questioned, attributing the painting to one of the followers of the Venetian school.