Portrait of a Youth as Saint Sebastian by Marco d'Oggiono

This is "Portrait of a Youth as Saint Sebastian" by Marco d'Oggiono, painted around 1494 and now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. It is widely accepted that the young man is Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the hereditary Duke of Milan, whose title was usurped by his uncle Ludovico il Moro.

The painting shows him holding the arrows of Saint Sebastian, not pierced by them, but presenting them like a reliquary. His expression is not one of agony but of serene resignation. The sfumato technique, a direct inheritance from d'Oggiono's master Leonardo da Vinci, softens every edge of his face and neck, giving him an almost luminous fragility.

Gian Galeazzo was the legitimate heir. His uncle declared himself regent, then duke, and the young man spent his final years confined. He died in 1494 at age 25, the same year this portrait was painted, possibly commissioned as a memorial, or a coded act of loyalty by a patron who still believed he was the true ruler.

It's a portrait dressed as a devotional image. Most people see a saint and keep scrolling. Now you know the face belongs to a prince who was written out of history.