New volume in the Frick Diptych series focuses on an exquisite
Renaissance portrait, pairing an essay by Frick curator Giulio Dalvit
with a rich contribution from contemporary artist Elizabeth Peyton.
Various identities for the richly dressed, contemplative young man in
this portrait have been proposed but none with any certainty. The mood
of the subject and the diffused, gentle play of light over the broadly
painted surfaces are strongly reminiscent of Titian's Venetian
contemporary Giorgione. In many ways, the Frick portrait epitomizes a
new tendency in Italian Renaissance portraiture in which the depiction
is intended less as a description of the sitter than as an encounter
with them.
A rich contribution by artist Elizabeth Peyton accompanies an
illuminating essay by Giulio Dalvit which addresses the many questions
of provenance, chronology, attribution and of who this mysterious young
man might be.