
| Self-Portrait 1506 Oil on wood, 45 x 33 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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The controversial Self-Portrait in the Uffizi is very similar
to the Blessing Christ, but its poor state of conservation has prevented critics
from attributing it objectively and definitively to Raphael. Nevertheless,
many art historians consider it a work from the Florentine period. The soft
light which pervades the portrait certainly recalls Leonardo, but the restless
and problematic elements which Leonardo's complex figurative research present
are absent. The intense representation of the youth shows no sign of internal
tension. On the contrary, it communicates a serene observation of reality
through a pictorial rendering rich in synthetic capacity.