would have been about 40 at the time of the portrait. Conversely, the direct eye contact could be that of the artist looking in the mirror. Frederick Hartt suggested it might be Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici (Il Popolano, 1463–1503), whose two certain portraits, both profiles on medals, vary considerably, though one resembles this. He is also sometimes claimed to be the subject of other Botticelli portraits, with completely different features (e.g. Pitti Palace, wearing a chaperon). The appearance at an auction in 1982, from the Thomas Merton collection, of a rarely seen painting by Botticelli of a Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel identified (with no real evidence) as Giovanni il Popolano in a similar pose, holding up a round medallion cut from a much older painting (albeit of a bearded saint, not Cosimo), has led to speculation that this might be a companion piece, and thus that the young man in this portrait is possibly his brother, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. (the long dark locks and facial features are not dissimilar from those found on Mercury in Botticelli's Primavera, another presumed representation of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco.) The cut-out now in place may not be the original insertion; it may have been another medal of Cosimo. If so, the meaning of the medallion over the heart may simply be a profession of the loyalty of the cadet branch of the Popolani to the branch of Cosimo. In Botticelli (2004), Sean Connolly says that some critics also believe that the young man may have been a Medici follower, but notes that "the subject is almost as mysterious as Leonardo's Mona Lisa. Gloria Fossi in Uffizi Gallery (2001) calls the subject "one of the most enigmatic models of the Renaissance." Provenance The origin of the painting depends on its model, who remains unknown despite much speculation (see above). It is first recorded with Cardinal Carlo de' Medici. On his death in 1666, it entered the ducal collection in the Uffizi. The painting was restored in 1991. Notes References Legouix, Susan, Botticelli, 2004 (revd edn), Chaucer Press, 1470s paintings Man Man Paintings by Sandro Botticelli in the Uffizi