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Peter Paul Rubens
1577-1640
Portrait of a Young Man in
Armor
ca. 1620
Oil on canvas
25-1/2 x 20 in.
By the 1620s, Rubens was recognized as the foremost painter of decorative projects outside Italy, such as altarpieces and ceiling paintings for churches. He also produced portraits and mythological and biblical pictures for private patrons. This bust-length picture of a young man in his twenties was probably painted from life. Traditionally identified as a "young captain," the unknown sitter wears armor of the time, with a red sash or scarf thrown over one shoulder. The painting is a "study head" that was kept in Rubens's studio and used for reference by the artist or his workshop assistants in the painting of other works. Although this exact model cannot be identified in any of Rubens's finished paintings, he resembles subjects that appear in the artist's work of the late 1610s and early 1620s.