Raphael’s Lost Portrait: The Long Pursuit of a Renaissance Masterpiece

Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1513/14) as seen in an early twentieth century photograph of the masterpiece before its disappearance.

In his influential work The Lives, the sixteenth-century Italian artist and historian Giorgio Vasari praised the High Renaissance artist Rafaello Sanzio, known to the world as Raphael, for his defining personal and artistic aesthetics: “How generous and kind Heaven sometimes proves to be when it brings together in a single person the boundless riches of its treasures and all those graces and rare gifts that over a period of time are usually divided among many individuals.” One of the finest examples of this is his Portrait of a Young Man, painted circa 1513 and 1514. Created during the height of the Italian High Renaissance, it exemplifies Raphael’s mastery of portraiture. A legendary work from the art historical perspective, it has a tragic modern history as a Polish cultural treasure that remains lost since World War II due to Nazi looting. Its disappearance remains a devastating loss to the art world and a poignant reminder of the extensive cultural theft that occurred during a global conflict. Today, scholars, governments, and restitution organizations—such as the Monuments Men and Women Foundation—continue efforts to recover this masterpiece. Though it remains lost, reproductions of the painting in various mediums exist in prominent institutions as testaments to its importance. But how did a sixteenth-century portrait become regarded as a coveted national treasure over the centuries?

The Creation and Significance of the Painting 

Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man holds particular significance as a masterpiece from the Italian High Renaissance, a period celebrated for its unparalleled artistic innovation, technical refinement, and cultural prestige. Raphael was at the peak of his career during this period, working on the frescoes in the Vatican’s Stanza della Segnatura and overseeing architectural projects in Rome. The sitter of Portrait of a Young Man is still debated to this day—was it Francesco Maria della Rovere, a powerful nobleman and military commander, an ideal portrayal of a male youth, or, as it is popularly assumed, a self-portrait? The man featured in the work does bear a resemblance to a known self-portrait of Raphael in the Uffizi and another depicted in the School of Athens fresco in the Vatican’s Stanza della Segnatura. Portrait of a Young Man is known from historical documentation and archival photographs, showing a young, affluent man elegantly dressed in Renaissance attire, posed with confidence against a domestic background with a distant landscape. His turned posture, direct gaze, and the richness of his clothing suggest status, intellect, and refinement. Art historians consider it one of Raphael’s greatest portraits, on par with his portraits of Popes Julius II and Leo X.

Kajetan Mühlmann, an Austrian art historian and SS officer who was a major participant in the Nazis’ looting operations, created an illustrated catalog documenting the systematic plundering of Polish treasures for senior German officials. The pages shown feature Raphael’s portrait.

The Painting’s Journey to Poland 

By the turn of the nineteenth century, Portrait of a Young Man had entered one of Poland’s most prestigious private art collections, assembled by Princess Izabela Czartoryska in Puławy. Alongside Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Lady with Ermine, it was a gift from her son, who had acquired the work during his travels to Italy. The two Italian masterpieces, along with Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Good Samaritan, became the most renowned works of the Czartoryski collection and known as the Great Three. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the portrait was regarded as a cornerstone of Renaissance art in Poland.

Disappearance of the Painting 

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the Nazis soon launched a systematic campaign to seize Poland’s most valuable cultural treasures. The Czartoryski collection was targeted, and Portrait of a Young Man was confiscated along with other masterpieces. The painting was taken to Berlin, where it was briefly held before being transferred to Wawel Castle in Krakow, which had become the residence of Hans Frank, the Nazi-appointed governor-general of occupied Poland. Frank, an avid art collector and one of Hitler’s close associates, was a key participant in the plunder of countless artworks across Poland. He displayed looted paintings in his quarters at the castle. As the war came to an end in 1945, Frank fled to Germany, and Portrait of a Young Man vanished. Unlike Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt’s Good Samaritan, which were recovered and returned to Poland, Raphael’s portrait was never found. 

During the postwar investigations by the Allies, they discovered detailed evidence of the Nazi art theft in Poland, including Frank’s involvement. When he was captured and put on trial at Nuremberg, the former Nazi governor-general claimed that the mass looting of Polish art treasures had occurred before his administration and that he hadn’t appropriated artworks for his own personal gain—offering no definitive answers regarding the painting’s fate even though it had last been seen in his possession. Some theories suggest that the painting was destroyed during the final days of the war, either in the bombings or as the Nazis attempted to cover their crimes. Other theories propose that it may have been hidden away in a private collection or secret vault, waiting to be rediscovered. 

 Surviving Sketches and Studies of the Painting 

The numerous surviving engravings and sketches of Raphael’s lost Portrait of a Young Man highlight the enduring significance of the original painting, even in its absence. Finely executed engravings such as those attributed to Paulus Pontius and Anthony van Dyck now held in institutions like the British Museum and Harvard Art Museums collections demonstrate the painting’s early fame and wide circulation. These prints translated Raphael’s portrait into reproducible form, which preserved its aesthetic and cultural impact even after the original was lost. Complementing these are more intimate drawn studies, like those in the Louvre, which suggest a continued fascination with the composition at the level of individual artists. The very fact that both engraved reproductions and drawn copies survive—and were created across centuries and regions—attests to the portrait’s enduring influence and the high regard in which it was held. Together, these images function as visual afterlives, preserving the memory of a lost Renaissance icon.

The ace of spades from the Monuments Men and Women Foundation’s WWII Most Wanted Art™ deck, spotlighting Raphael’s lost Portrait of a Young Man. The deck is available for purchase through the Foundation’s online shop.

These surviving sketches allow scholars to reconstruct some aspects of the painting’s appearance, but they cannot replace the original’s presence in the art world. The Polish government has listed Portrait of a Young Man as one of its most important missing artworks, and it remains at the top of restitution efforts. Despite its disappearance, the painting continues to captivate art historians, with theories about its whereabouts emerging periodically. Some claim it is hidden in Russia, Switzerland, or private European collections, but none of these leads have resulted in its recovery. The painting’s loss represents more than just a missing artwork—it symbolizes the irreparable cultural damage caused by war and looting. 

Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man is a symbol of the ongoing fight for cultural restitution. As scholars and institutions continue searching for the artwork, its absence remains a reminder of how war reshaped the art world. Whether locked away in an unknown collection or destroyed in the chaos of World War II, its story endures as one of the greatest mysteries in art history. Until it is found, Raphael’s masterpiece will continue to be one of the most significant lost treasures of the Renaissance.

At the Monuments Men and Women Foundation, we highlight its significance by making it the ace of spades in our deck of WWII Most Wanted Art™ playing cards, a tool we use to raise awareness about looted art in an engaging and accessible way.