- Work:
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- Author, circle:
-
- Epoch, date:
-
- Location:
- Washington, National Gallery
- Inventory:
- inv. S.H. Kress Coll. n. 1952.2.56.
- Technical details:
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- Provenance:
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Florence, collections of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici (died in 1609). From 1796, Florence, Marquis Alfonso Tacoli Canacci (1724-1801); by inheritance to his nephew, Pietro Tacoli (1773-1847) in Modena and then by inheritance to his daughter Alaide Tacoli; through her marriage into the Bellincini Bagnesi family, up to the Marchioness Adele Bagnesi; in 1940 sold, through Zelindo Bonaccini, to Count Vittorio Cini, Venice; around 1948 sold to Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York; in June 1949 sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; in 1952 donated to the National Gallery of Washington.
- Description, subject:
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Giuliano di Piero de’ Medici is portrayed half-bust, from a three-quarters view, facing towards the right. His distinguishing features, as usual, are the long dark hair curling at the ends, the long nose, pronounced cheekbones, strong jaw and protruding chin: he is wearing a red overgown. His gaze is turned downwards, as in various portraits datable after his bloody and premature death, felled by the stab wounds inflicted by the plotters of the Pazzi Conspiracy (1478). The dove perched on the sill of the window that frames the figure, and the open door behind him, allude to the life after death in the world to come.
- Historical information:
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The painting portrays Giuliano de’ Medici ( 1453-1478), son of Piero il Gottoso and younger brother of Lorenzo il Magnifico, who died in the Pazzi Conspiracy in 1478.
Various iconographic details, in particular the half-closed eyes (see Description above) lead to the assumption that the work was painted after the death of Giuliano, like the majority of the known portraits of the Medici, including at least two others that can be referred to Botticelli and his workshop (Bergamo, Accademia Carrara; Berlin, Staatliche Museen) and a marble bust now at the Bargello attributed to Matteo del Pollaiolo.
There is no record of any painted portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici in the inventory of the assets of the Magnifico drawn up at his death in 1492. Instead an article of this kind (“1 painting with the head of Giuliano”) is mentioned in the 1503 inventory of the “old house” (Shearman 1503). This could refer to one of Botticelli’s portraits.
On the rear of the Washington painting is the emblem of a queen bee surrounded by her subject bees,
a device proper to Ferdinando I de’ Medici (1551-1609) the third Grand Duke of Tuscany. The painting must hence have belonged to his collections.
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