Portrait of a Young Man is a painting by Raphael. It is often thought to be a self-portrait. During the Second World War the painting was stolen by the Nazis from Poland. Many historians regard it as the most important painting missing since World War II. The portrait is in oil on panel, probably from 1513 to 1514, and is by the Italian High Renaissance painter and architect Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino better known simply as Raphael. The subject's identity is unverified, but many scholars have traditionally regarded it as Raphael's self-portrait. The facial features are perceived by specialists as compatible with, if not clearly identical to, the only undoubted self-portrait by Raphael in his fresco The School of Athens at the Vatican, identified as such by Vasari. If it is a self-portrait, no hint is given of Raphael's profession; the portrait shows a richly dressed and "confidently poised" young man.
Analysis As a portrait painting of the High Renaissance, Raphael's emphasis on erect poise, gesture, texture, decorous ornament, and softened form all represented cultivated Mannerist expression with the attributes of the noble class in a style which spread through southern Italy after Raphael's death. The textural details of a flesh-colored wall, sable fur, and wavy dark hair not only strike a Neo-Classical, sensitive balance between real humanity and nature, but they also extend gestures seen in previous female hand placement to stress man's role as a well-travelled humanist. Raphael humanized male gender so that the sleeve ribbon and hazy edges around both hair and landscape reflected the interchangeability of each gender. A left palm placed near the heart emphasized self-identity and a passionate stance. A striking contrast between pure white and sable intensified the doctrinal harmony between Heaven and Earth. It is probable that Raphael's studious approach to the idealized representation of human proportion was based on his studies of ancient athletic and military heroes in Classical sculpture such as Doryphoros and Augustus of Prima Porta. The painting was brought to Poland, along with Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine and many Roman antiquities, by Prince Adam George Czartoryski, son of Princess Izabela Czartoryska, on his travels to Italy in 1798.
Nazi German theft
At the onset of the Nazi German invasion of Poland in 1939, then family patriarch Prince Augustyn Józef Czartoryski rescued numerous pieces from the Czartoryski Museum, including Portrait of a Young Man, Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt's masterpiece Landscape with the Good Samaritan. The collection was hidden at a residence in Sieniawa, but was later discovered by the Gestapo, working for Hans Frank, Hitler's appointee as the governor of the General Government. From the collection, these three paintings decorated Frank's residence in Kraków before they were sent to Berlin, and Dresden, to become part of Hitler's own collection at Linz, arranged by his plenipotentiary, Hans Posse. In January 1945, Frank brought the paintings back from Germany to Kraków for his own use at the royal Wawel Castle. This is where Portrait of a Young Man was last seen. When the Germans evacuated from Kraków later that month ahead of the Soviet offensive, it is thought that Frank took the paintings with him to Silesia and then to his own villa in Neuhaus am Schliersee.. The Americans arrested Frank on May 3, 1945, pending trial for extensive war crimes (he was executed in 1946). The Polish representative at the Allies Commission for the Retrieval of Works of Art located some of the paintings stolen by him, and claimed them on behalf of the Czartoryski Museum. However, Portrait of a Young Man and 843 other artifacts were missing from storage. Lynn H. Nicholas suggested in The Rape of Europa, her 1994 book on Nazi plunder, that if the painting were to reappear, it would be worth in excess of US$100 million (equivalent to $217.22 million in 2025).
Unknown whereabouts
After the Cold War, the Czartoryski family made a constant effort to locate the painting. In a 2007 interview, Prince Adam Czartoryski stated that he had tried to recover many of the paintings that were lost during World War II. The painting had been placed in a three-piece collection of the Czartoryski family alongside Rembrandt's Landscape with the Good Samaritan and Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine. Unlike Portrait of a Young Man, the latter two paintings were found in 1945 and returned. However, it is believed that the portrait is not lost but stolen. The painting's location is unknown, although the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that it has been known "for years" the painting survived the war. However, in mid-2012 a false report about the painting's rediscovery appeared in popular media, attributed to an alleged statement made by a representative of the Polish Foreign Minister for the restitution of cultural property. It was reported to be hidden in a bank vault of an unidentified location. The Polish newsflash was a hoax intended to drum up readership. Soon afterward, the ministry spokesman explained in a public announcement that there were no new leads in regard to the whereabouts of the artwork; affirming their confidence in its express return to Poland once it is indeed found. In 2016, the royal pieces moved from the Czartoryski Museum after being bought by the Polish state. The original empty frame of the painting currently hangs in the National Museum of Krakow where the royal collection of works holds openings.
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