The Thin White Duke alleged to be a Nazi salute. Bowie denied this, saying that he was simply waving and the photographer captured his image mid-wave. As early as 1976, Bowie began disavowing his allegedly pro-Fascist comments and said that he was misunderstood. In an interview that year in the "Daily Express", he explained that while performing in his various characters, "I'm Pierrot. I'm Everyman. What I'm doing is theatre, and only theatre... What you see on stage isn't sinister. It's pure clown. I'm using myself as a canvas and trying to paint the truth of our time on it. The white face, the
Portrait of a Young Man with a Lamp composition are similar to other early work by Lotto, such as the "Portrait of Bishop Bernardo de' Rossi" (1505). The face is framed by the dark clothes and hat, painted over a white brocade drapery with a green border. On the right, an opening to a darker background shows a lightened lamp, a symbol which could allude to the man's personality or deeds, and which has been variously interpreted (from a reference to an evangelic episode to an allegory of the human life's shortness, due the dimness of the flame). The subject has been identified as Broccardo Malchiostro, the young