
Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence

Sandro Botticelli, 1482
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence

Sandro Botticelli
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence

Fra Angelico
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence
Other masterpieces from the Renaissance movement

Raphael, 1512
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Dresden

Leonardo da Vinci, 1500
Private Collection, Unknown

Raphael, 1511
Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Raphael, 1510
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Titian, 1538
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence

Titian, 1555
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

El Greco, 1614
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo da Vinci, 1503
Louvre, Paris, Paris
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
Browse Collection