Portrait of a Man with the Medal of Cosimo

Sandro Botticelli completed this unusual portrait around 1475, showing a young man displaying a medal bearing the profile of Cosimo de' Medici in his triangled hands. The subject's identity remains one of art history's enduring mysteries.

Scholars have proposed various candidates: the medal's designer, a Medici family member, or even Antonio Botticelli, the artist's brother who worked as a goldsmith for the Medici court. The dark-haired youth gazes directly at the viewer, creating an intimate connection unusual for portraits of this period. Now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the painting was designed to evoke touch and physical engagement with the gleaming medal.