Agria 38. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2002)

Szigethi Ágnes: A Pyrker-képtár Budapesten

the above questions. The first serious analysis, published by Morelli in 1880, attributed the painting to Giorgione. This is an attribution which has survived despite several challenges. If, as is often believed, the painting was painted during the early decades of the 16

th century, the person depicted cannot have been the Venetian poet Antonius Brokardus as has been suggested. By placing special emphasis on the symbolic use of light A. Ballarin has attributed the origins of the painting to the influence of Leonardo di Vinci. According to this particular argument the light coming down from the heavens opens the way for the human spirit to rise to the very heights to the point where the light of reason is at one with the light of God and the love of the Holy Spirit. This neo-Platonic approach derives from the Asolani written by Pietro Bembo at the beginning of the 1500s. It is then also that the idealised portrait of the young male appears in the art of Giorgione providing an additional context in which the love of God can be expressed. 43