Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1473), 35.5×25.5 cm, oil on panel, National Gallery, London. Antonello de Messina (1430–1479) was the most representative painter of the Italian Renaissance in Naples, and the first Italian painter to fully embrace the oil painting technique of the Flemish Van Eyck brothers. He went on to successfully fuse the delicate and refined depiction of Northern Europe with Italian painting forms, creating an outstanding and masterful painting that revolutionized the traditional Italian (tempera) painting. This exquisitely skilled oil technique profoundly influenced the painters of the Venetian school.

In addition to numerous outstanding, meticulous, and perfect portraits, his most famous works are the "Sacred Conversation" and "Saint Jerome in His Study," in which the perfect combination of pictorial space and real space gives viewers a sense of being physically present. de Messina is one of the most important portrait painters of the Renaissance; like the Flemish Van Eyck, his works are vividly lifelike under solid, realistic, and masterful technique, and all are rich in expression.

This portrait of a young man is no exception. Facing the viewer in three-quarter view, against a black background that sets off a clear and concrete contour line, the face possesses character: focused and powerful eyes, thick eyelashes, a straight nose, sensitive lips, and a solid chin. A sincere and confident demeanor is perfectly presented under unified (left-side) lighting, delicate and soft chroma, contrasting tones, and light-and-shadow shading, achieving an unconventional three-dimensionality of the face approaching reality. On his head he wears a dark red cap, revealing a row of thick black hair. He is dressed in a dark brown garment decorated with red lines, and at the neck a strongly contrasting white collar is revealed, producing a finishing-touch effect.

The visual focal point of the entire painting lies on the face, carefully orchestrated by the simplified red cap surface above and the brown garment surface below. It clearly captures the most profound state of human expression, manifesting the outstanding spirit of the Renaissance.