On a dark green background are portrayed the half-length figures of two men. The attribution to Raphael of this double portrait has never fully convinced the critics.

The work is notable, however, for the psychological framework of the persons depicted and can be placed in the most mature and fecund Roman period of the artist, on account of a series of documentary considerations as well as stylistic ones.

Although the execution of the work and the expressive truthfulness of the two figures are so fine, little is known of the identity of the two noble gentlemen, elaborately dressed in grey-black clothing. The fidei-commissum catalogue attributed the work to Raphael and indicated the two persons as being Bartolo da Sassoferrato and Baldo degli Ubaldi, jurists of the fifteenth century.

Other indications point to Luther and Calvin, as well as Andrea Doria and Christopher Columbus. The naming as “Bearzano e Navagero”, as given long ago by Marcantonio Michiel, is perhaps the most reliable.