BELLINI, Giovanni
(b. ca. 1426, Venezia, d. 1516, Venezia)

Portrait of a Young Man

1500
Oil on wood, 31 x 26 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

This work, along with the Portrait of a Young Man conserved in the Galleria Capitolina, is recorded in the Inventories of 1753 as a self portrait, and as such it continues to be regarded, even though this supposition lacks any scientific foundation. The portrait is highly distinctive, the face having a mellow, moulded quality accentuated by its halo of soft curls and the round clouds which fill the sky in the background.