Portrait of a Young Man
by MEMLING, Hans, Oil on wood, 33 x 25 cm
The vision of man and the world free from the transcendental conception of the Middle Ages achieved on the threshold of the fifteenth century in Tuscany through the laws of linear perspective, was reached almost at the same time in Flanders in an empirical fashion through the continuous lyrical modulation of light which, embracing form and space in a unified synthesis, brings out the natural value and weight of colours. This is the background to the intimate, contemplative, natural quality of the painting of Hans Memling, an excellent example of which is the ‘Portrait of a Young Man’. The light gently explores the features of the human face and of landscape and evokes each detail with incomparable naturalness.