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A fine youthful work but partially repainted. It was done under the influence of Dürer and Jacopo de' Barbari. It is small, but life-size. Even in this work from his earliest period, the sitter's fully frontal posture is characteristic of Lotto's portraits, and so is the lively sense of personality that emerges from the close-up.
In the 18th-century inventories the painting appeared as the portrait of Raphael, executed by Leonardo da Vinci, an assumption based on the soft, atmospheric modeling, the intense psychological penetration, and the traditional iconography of Raphael, who had always been seen as a delicate, elegant and refined youth. Recent X-rays, however, have revealed a previous portrait, completely different the one executed.
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