Portrait Bust of a Young Man after 1829

Sandro Botticelli made this drawing of a young man using metalpoint, white gouache, and brown wash on prepared paper. The image is a study in the social currency of portraiture in Renaissance Florence. How did artists like Botticelli shape our perceptions of identity and status through images? This drawing offers clues. The young man’s averted gaze, for instance, suggests a self-aware distance, while his fashionable cap and long hair denote a certain social class. Florence in the late 15th century was a society undergoing rapid change. The rise of a wealthy merchant class challenged traditional aristocratic power. Art became a crucial tool for these new elites to assert their status. Patrons and artists alike looked to classical antiquity to create an aura of sophistication. Records of patronage, family crests, and inventories of personal possessions are vital to understanding how images like this functioned in their original social context. Understanding art, then, requires that we look beyond the aesthetic and into the complex web of social relations that produced it.