Portrait of a young woman

Sandro Botticelli produced this profile portrait around 1485, depicting a young married woman standing near a window or door frame. The tempera on wood measures 61 by 40.5 centimeters and captures the idealized beauty that made Botticelli one of the most celebrated painters of Renaissance Florence.

The woman wears a valuable pendant from the Medici jewelry collection, suggesting she moved in the highest Florentine circles. A lock of hair escapes from her bun, adding a note of spontaneity to this otherwise formal profile. Several candidates have been proposed for her identity, including Simonetta Vespucci, Clarice Orsini, and Fioretta Gorini, possibly a "mistress of Giuliano de' Medici."

The painting now hangs at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Though known for his mythological major works like The Birth of Venus and Primavera, Botticelli also painted portraits of contemporary Florentines that preserve glimpses of women's lives in the Renaissance.