''Portrait of a Young Man'' (''Ritratto virile'') is a tempera on panel painting by the
Italian Renaissance artist
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1483, 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 in profile, 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 its time.
This work has at various times been attributed to
Giorgione,
Filippino Lippi and even believed to be a self-portrait by
Masaccio
Masaccio (, , ; December 21, 1401 – summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a Florentine artist who is regarded as the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, ...
. 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 name is unknown.
See also
*
List of works by Sandro Botticelli
*Botticelli's portraits in
Palazzo Pitti and
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, Washington, D.C.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait Of A Young Man (Botticelli, London)
Paintings by Sandro Botticelli in the National Gallery, London
1480s paintings