Self-portrait with a friend

The Self-Portrait with a friend (also known as Double Portrait) is a painting by Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. In this double portrait the artist himself stands behind an unknown man (a friend or a pupil, perhaps Polidoro da Caravaggio or Giovanni Battista Branconio, for whom Raphael had built a palace next to St. Peter's Basilica in 1518), on whose shoulder his hand rests familiarly. Raphael looks out of the picture with a serious expression. The friend's gesture is not meant for the onlooker, but seems more directed at Raphael, as if he were showing him something—himself, perhaps, in a mirror.