In an interview, Prince Adam Czartoryski stated that he has tried to recover many of the paintings that were lost during the Second World War. Unknown whereabouts Īfter the Cold War, the Czartoryski family made a constant effort to locate the painting. Nicholas suggested that if the painting were to reappear today, it would be worth in excess of 100 million US dollars. In her book on Nazi plunder, The Rape of Europa, Lynn H. However, Portrait of a Young Man and 843 other artifacts were missing from storage. 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. The Americans arrested Frank on May 3, 1945, pending trial for extensive war crimes (he was executed in 1946). 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. This is where Portrait of a Young Man was last seen. In January 1945, Frank brought the paintings back from Germany to Kraków for his own use at the royal Wawel Castle. From the collection, these three paintings decorated Frank's residence in Kraków before they were sent to Berlin, and Dresden, to become part of the Führer's own collection at Linz, arranged by Hitler's plenipotentiary, Hans Posse. 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. The Nazi German theft Īt 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 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. 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. A striking contrast between pure white and sable intensified the doctrinal harmony between Heaven and Earth. A left palm placed near the heart emphasized self-identity and a passionate stance. Raphael humanized male gender so that the sleeve ribbon and hazy edges around both hair and landscape reflected the interchangeability of each gender. 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. No colour photographs of the painting were made before it disappeared the colour image has been artificially coloured.Īs 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. 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. 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. The subject's identity is unverified, but many scholars have traditionally regarded it as Raphael's self-portrait. The portrait is in oil on panel, probably from 1513 to 1514, and is by the Italian High Renaissance Old Master painter and architect Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino better known simply as Raphael. Many historians regard it as the most important painting missing since World War II. During the Second World War the painting was stolen by the Germans from Poland. It is often thought to be a self-portrait. Portrait of a Young Man is a painting by Raphael. Portrait of a young Man, unknown master, 80,5 x 63,5 cm, private collection Berlin.
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