Portrait of a Young Man (Botticelli, London)
Portrait of a Young Man is a tempera on panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, c. 1483. It is housed in the National Gallery in London.
This panel painting is small, but significant. Before this work, subjects in Italian portraiture were either seated portrait view, or seated with three quarters of their face showing. In this painting the boy is seated head on, so his whole face can be mapped out, making this a revolutionary work for it’s time.
This work has at various times been attributed to Giorgione, Filippino Lippi and even believed to be a self-portrait by Masaccio. It is now widely accepted as a Botticelli and is his only known en face portrait. The man in the painting is a young city dweller from Florence, his identity is unknown.
