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A youth leans against a battered pedestal, casually supporting himself on his left arm; his right hand grasps the pole of a white nag, which falls in gentle folds onto his shoulder. The motifs in this picture can be quickly enumerated, but the quality of the painting itself is incomparably rich. The deep blue of the young man's jacket is broken by the turquoise lining of his collar, which mediates the gold tones of the brocade below. The white flag visits every nuance of cold and warm in shades of grey and ochre; the fabric reflects the light, is permeated by the light, tempers it and consigns it back into the shadows. The white creates a tense backdrop to the face shown in profile; an enormous range of contrasts from the brightest shades to the darkness of the background is manifested in a rich web of juxtapositions.
The imagery of the painting is reminiscent in its central motif — a figure leaning on a pedestal - of portraiture, while the pathos of the flag and the young man's attentive gaze are more reminiscent of historical painting.
The painting's point of departure lies in the painterly effects offered by chiaroscuro. Piazzetta painted and drew a number of similarly indeterminate figures, partly in a genre or pastoral scene, partly militaristic with the figure dressed as a standard-bearer, archer or lancer.
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