Male portraits by Antonello da Messina

It is signed in the Flemish manner by directly engraving the painter's name on the parapet in the lower foreground (instead of using a false glued panel), as with the Madrid portrait.

Despite the sign, the similarity to Flemish portrait paintings and the poor state of preservation have caused some scholars to doubt the attribution to Antonello.

The subject, a young man, is drawn from a quite near point of view, with the master's usual skill in rendering detail.

The work has been dated approximately to the early 1470s, based on the typical "zuccotto" headgear, a fashion more characteristic of 1460s Italy.

The dark background and the essential composition are derived from Early Netherlandish painting, such as the work of the Flemish painter Petrus Christus, whom Antonello knew personally in Italy.