Young Man with an Apple (Raphael)

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Portrait of Young Man with an Apple

Raphael, 1505

Oil on wood

47 × 35 cm

Uffizi, Florence

The Young Man with an Apple is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael (1505). It is housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

The small portrait has been associated with the paintings representing St. Michael and St. George. It is difficult to perceive the hand of the artist in the face which, although beautifully drawn, lacks the physiognomic characteristics which typify Raphael's subjects. But the overall attention to the analytical effects of Flemish art leads us to attribute the work to Raphael, since his attention was turned to the production of this school precisely in these years. Furthermore, the compositional harmony which is a principal element of Raphael's art is visible in the compact forms of the solidly conceived portrait.

The subject has been associated with Francesco Maria I Della Rovere, and possibly correctly: the portrait reached Florence with the Della Rovere patrimony in 1631 on the marriage of Vittoria Della Rovere to the future Grand Duke Ferdinand II.