Portrait of a Young Man

A scene from the life of St Hubert appears behind the sitter. While out hunting on Good Friday, the pleasure-loving Hubert saw a stag with a vision of the crucifix between its antlers. He renounced his worldly way of life, turned to Christianity, became a bishop, then a saint. The scene is perhaps included here because the young man was called Hubert or belonged to a guild dedicated to the saint. From 1519 to 1521 Mostaert was a court painter to the Regent of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria.