Profile Portrait of a Young Man
Shown from the chest up, a light-skinned man wearing a burgundy-red turban faces our left in profile against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. He looks off to the left, and the eye we can see is light brown under a faint, possibly plucked eyebrow. He has a straight nose, and his full peach-colored lips are closed. There is the suggestion of a puffy area under the eye we can see, but the rest of his skin is smooth. His brown hair is mostly tucked under his turban, and a piece of fabric hangs down the back of his neck. A band of his white undergarment is visible at the high neck of his olive-brown shirt, which appears to be pleated or striped down the front. He also wears a black jacket, which covers his shoulder and most of his chest. A brown band across the bottom edge of the painting could be a wooden railing or ledge, behind which the man is shown. Cracks are visible across the painting, especially in the deep green background.
Details
- Palette
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- Medium
- tempera on panel
- Dimensions
- overall: 42.4 x 32.5 cm (16 11/16 x 12 13/16 in.) framed: 69.2 x 61.6 x 6.4 cm (27 1/4 x 24 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.)
- Department
- CIS-R
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
8 tags
Subject Matter
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Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The work depicts a single sitter in a formal chest-up profile, and the catalog title identifies it as Profile Portrait of a Young Man.
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Face Both · 98%
The composition gives particular prominence to the sitter's eye, nose, lips, cheek, and ear in profile.
Visual Qualities
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Dark Colors Visual · 95%
Deep green, black, brown, and burgundy tones dominate the ground, garments, and turban, despite the lighter modeling of the face.
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Cracked Visual · 99%
Networks of fine cracks are visibly distributed across the painted surface, especially in the green background and lower portion.
Medium and Techniques
Time Periods
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15th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to 1430/1450, within the fifteenth century.
Geographic Regions
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Italian Art Metadata · 90%
The catalog attribution is to Florentine 15th Century, indicating a Florentine and therefore Italian context.
Source & rights
Florentine 15th Century. Profile Portrait of a Young Man. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.