RAFFAELLO Sanzio
(b. 1483, Urbino, d. 1520, Roma)

Double Portrait

1518
Oil on canvas, 90 x 83 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

In this double portrait the artist himself stands behind a man on whose shoulder his hand rests familiarly. He stands calmly behind the unknown man (a friend or a pupil, perhaps Polidoro da Caravaggio), looking out of the picture with a serious expression. The friend's gesture is not meant for the onlooker, but seems more directed at Raphael, as if he were showing him something - himself, perhaps, in a mirror.




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