Double Portrait
by RAFFAELLO Sanzio, Oil on canvas, 90 x 83 cm
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.