Duke Federico Maria della Rovere was so pleased at the birth of his son that he commissioned numerous portraits of him at various ages. Portrayed here at age two, he is shown full-length, facing the viewer, resplendent in a red and gold garment of the type young children, whether male or female, wore for their first few years. Although Federico was a member of the Urbino royal family and this is an official portrait, his childlike demeanor is disarming. Holding a paddle and ball, he seems eager to play and actively confront the world.

Documentary evidence provides the name of the painter, Alessandro Vitale, one of Federico Barocci’s pupils, who produced this in the master’s studio. Barrocci was the most important sixteenth-century painter to have worked in Urbino. He developed a personal approach that emphasized elegance, grace, sentimentality, and an unusual color sense. Considered a link between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, his works were chiefly of religious subjects, but he did paint portraits, especially of the Rovere family.