Plenty of faces keep you company in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition 'Raphael: Sublime Poetry''saints and sinners, popes and poets, ladies in posh frocks or nothing at all'but the most disarming is the first to greet you, that of a boy in a fun hat. With a long, straight nose; soft, bright eyes; and an uplifted chin, he carries the wary confidence of a teenage heartthrob. It isn't just the face that makes you pause. So does the stripped-down assurance of its execution: A single strong line eloquently maps the contour of cheek, chin, and neck; a handful of deft arcs convey dark lashes above pale irises and a sweet double bow where the lips meet. A gentle swing of shoulder-length hair provides the only hint of motion. The drawing, a presumed self-portrait, would have been made when Raphael was about 17, sometime around 1500. It gives a hint of his natural talent and also of something more'an attitude of mastery worn lightly, of elegance too dignified to call attention to...
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