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Giuliano Medici, the younger brother of Lorenzo, was nursing a bad knee on Easter Day 1478 and had to be helped to the cathedral—by the very men who were plotting to kill him and his brother during mass. The assassins, members and supporters of the Pazzi family, banking rivals of the Medici, awaited their signal. As worshipers bowed their heads at the elevation of the host, Giuliano was brutally stabbed. Lorenzo escaped to the sacristy, remaining there while the Pazzi partisans attempted to seize the government. They soon failed, however, and Lorenzo resumed control.

The murder of Giuliano shocked Florence, and a number of portraits were ordered for public display to serve both as memorials and as warnings to other plotters. Botticelli's painting may have been the prototype for others, and lent symbolic gravity to Guiliano’s passing, showing him as an icon, almost a saint. The open window and mourning dove were familiar symbols of death, alluding to the flight of the soul and the deceased's passage to the afterlife. Some scholars, noting the lowered eyelids, suggest this portrait was painted posthumously from a death mask.

Object Data

Medium

tempera on panel

Dimensions

overall: 75.5 x 52.5 cm (29 3/4 x 20 11/16 in.)

framed: 105.7 x 81.3 x 11.3 cm (41 5/8 x 32 x 4 7/16 in.)

Accession Number

1952.5.56

Artists / Makers

Sandro Botticelli (painter) Florentine, 1446 - 1510

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Detail Information

Provenance

Grand Duke Ferdinand I de' Medici [1551-1609], Florence.[1] Marchese Alfonso Tacoli Canacci [1724-1801], Florence, by 1796;[2] by inheritance to his nephew, Pietro Tacoli [1773-1847], Modena; by inheritance to his daughter, Adelaide Tacoli; through her marriage into the Bellincini Bagnesi family, Modena; by descent to Marchesa Adele Bagnesi;[3] sold 1940 through (Zelindo Bonaccini [1890-1967], Modena)[4] to Count Vittorio Cini [1885-1977], Venice;[5] sold to (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York), probably in 1948;[6] sold June 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[7] gift 1952 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1999
Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s, The National Gallery, London, 1999-2000, no. 1, repro.
2001
Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's 'Ginevra de' Benci' and Renaissance Portraits of Women, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2001-2002, no. 27, color repro.
2009
Botticelli, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt, 2009-2010, no. 5, repro.
2011
The Portrait in Renaissance Italy: From Masaccio to Bellini, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011-2012, no. 52, repro.

Bibliography

1796
Catalogue raisonné, ou description exacte de plusieurs excellens tableaux…dans un recueil appurtenant à monsieur le marquis Alphonse Tacoli Canacci à Florence. Parma, 1796: 88, no. 444.
1942
Bettini, Sergio. Botticelli. Milan, 1942:25-26, repro. 46.
1948
Kunstschätze der Lombardei: 500 vor Christus – 800 nach Christus. Exh. cat. Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1948: 221.
1949
Collobi Ragghianti, Licia. Catalogo della mostra d’arte antica: Lorenzo de’ Medici e le arti. Exh. cat. Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1949: 61.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 36-39, no. 10, repro.
1956
R. F. C. “Il quindicesimo anniversario della National Gallery di Washington.” Emporium 124 (1956): 67.
1956
Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 624, color repro. 635.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 62.
1957
Wittgens, Fernanda. Dipinti celebri della Accademia Carrara, Bergamo. Milan, 1957: 13.
1958
Salvini, Roberto. Tutta la pittura del Botticelli, 2 vols. Milan, 1958: 1:21, 47-48, pl. 50.
1958
Tervarent, Guy de. Attributs et symbols dans l’art profane, 1450-1600. 3 vols. Geneva, 1958-1964: 2(1959):385-386.
1959
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1959
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1960
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1960
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1961
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1962
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1963
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1963
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1964
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1964
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1965
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1965
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1965
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1965
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1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:46, color repro.
1966
Dalli Regoli, Gigetta. Lorenzo di Credi. Florence, 1966: 41.
1966
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 121-122, fig. 335.
1967
Mandel, Gabriel. The Complete Paintings of Botticelli. Milan and New York, 1967: 90, repro.
1967
Russoli, Franco. Accademia Carrara: Galleria di Belle Arti in Bergamo. Bergamo, 1967: 25.
1968
Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 30-31, color repro.
1968
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1968
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1972
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1975
De Logu, Giuseppe, and Guido Marinelli. Il ritratto nella pittura italiana. 2 vols. Bergamo, 1975: 1:162.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 38, repro.
1975
Katalog der ausgestellten Gemälde des 13-18 Jahurhunderts. Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Berlin, 1975: 58.
1976
Ettlinger, Leopold D., and Helen S. Ettlinger. Botticelli. London, 1976: 168.
1976
Hatfield, Rab. Botticelli’s Uffizi “Adoration”: A study in pictorial content. Princeton, 1976: 76-78, repro.
1978
Lightbown, Ronald. Botticelli: Life and Work, 2 vols. Berkeley, CA, 1978: 1:40-44, pl. 18. 2:30-32, cat. B20.
1978
Sleptzoff, L.M. Men or Supermen? The Italian Portrait in the Fifteenth Century. Jerusalem, 1978: 58-59.
1978
Zucker, Mark J. “Review of Rab Hatfield, Botticelli’s Uffizi “Adoration”.” Art Quarterly 1 (1978): 410.
1979
Lazzari, Lino, ed. Visitiamo assieme l’Accademia Carrara. 2 vols. Bergamo, 1979-1980: 2(1980):36.
1979
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1979
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1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:83-84; 2:pl. 55.
1980
De Angelis, Rita. Boticelli: Every Painting. Milan and New York, 1980: 32.
1981
Kemp, Martin. Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man. Cambridge, MA, 1981: 155.
1983
Berenson, Mary Logan. Mary Berenson: A Self Portrait from Her Letters & Diaries. Ed. Barbara Strachey and Jayne Samuels. New York, 1983: 188 n.
1983
Langedijk, Karla. The Portraits of the Medici: 15th-18th Centuries. 3 vols. Florence, 1981-1987: 1:32-33; 2(1983):1068, 1073, repro.
1984
Sokolowski, Thomas W., and Thomas W. Styron. From Veneziano to Pollock: Masterworks Donated to the Chrysler Museum by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Norfolk, VA, 1984: 7.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 97, no. 59, color repro.
1985
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1985
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1986
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1986
Zeri, Federico, and Francesco Rossi. La raccolta Morelli nell’Accademia Carrara. Bergamo, 1986: 89-91.
1987
Stapleford, Richard. “Botticelli’s Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Trecento Medallion.” The Burlington Magazine 129 (July 1987): 434.
1988
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1988
De Giorgi, Elsa. L’eredità Contini Bonacossi: L’ambiguo rigore del vero. Milan, 1988: 234.
1989
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1989
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1989
Sekine. Istituto Giapponese di Cultura. The Japan Foundation. Annuario 23 (1989): 64-65.
1990
Campbell, Lorne. Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 16th and 16th Centuries. New Haven and London, 1990: 69, 86, 115-116, pl. 136.
1990
Caneva, Caterina. Botticelli: catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1990: 56.
1990
Dühlberg, Angelica. Privatporträts. Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1990: 162.
1991
Acidini, Cristina. “Gli artisti di Lorenzo di Medici.” In Franco Borsi, ed. “Per Bellezza, per studio, per piacere.” Lorenzo il Magnifico e gli spazi dell’arte. Florence, 1991: 168.
1991
Vertova, Luisa. “Botticelli tra falsificazione e reinvenzioni.” Antichità Viva 30, no. 6 (1991): 24, 29 n. 2.
1992
Reiss, Sheryl E. “Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici as a Patron of Art, 1513-1523.” 2 vols. Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1992: 1:106.
1992
Stapleford, Richard. The Age of Lorenzo de' Medici: Patronage and the Arts in Renaissance Florence. A Walking Tour of Italian Painting and Sculpture in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1992: no. 6, repro.
1993
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1993
Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 616, fig. 776.
1993
Grimm, Claus. “Die Frage nach der Eigenhändigkeit und die Praxis der Zuschreibung.” In Thomas W. Gaehtgens, ed. Künstlerischer Austausch = Artistic Exchange. Akten des XXVIII. Internationalen Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte, Berlin, 15.-20. Juli 1992. Berlin, 1993: 2:631, 647.
1996
Ciardi Dupré Dal Poggetto, Maria Grazia. “I dipinti di Palazzo Medici nell’inventario di Simone di Stagio delle Pozzo: Problemi di committenza e di arredo.” In Toscana al tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico: Politica, economia, cultura, arte. Convegno di studi promosso dalle Università di Firenze, Pisa e Siena, 5-8 novembre 1992. 3 vols. Pisa, 1996: 160-161.
1997
Goldfarb, Hilliard T. “Sandro Botticelli as Artist and Witness: An Overview.” In Laurence Kanter, Hilliard T. Goldfarb, and James Hankins. Botticelli’s Witness: Changing Style in a Changing Florence. Exh. cat. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 1997: 9.
1997
Kathke, Petra. Porträt und Accessoire: Eine Bildnisforme im 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1997: 140, 227, fig. 96.
1998
Capretti, Elena. Botticelli. Florence, 1998: 14-15, repro.
1999
Dempsey, Charles. "Portraits and Masks in the Art of Lorenzo de' Medici, Botticelli, and Politian's Stanze per la Giostra." Renaissance Quarterly 52:1 (Spring 1999): 24-25, fig. 15.
1999
Dempsey, Charles. The Portrayal of Love: Botticelli’s Primavera and Humanist Culture at the Time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Princeton, 1999: 24, fig. 15.
2000
Bredekamp, Horst. “Die Medici, Sixtus IV und Savonarola: Botticelli’s Konflikte.” In Horst Bredekamp, ed. Sandro Botticelli: Der Bilderzyklus zu Dantes Göttlicher Komödie. Exh. cat. Austellungshallen am KulturForum, Berlin, 2000: 293-294, 377 n. 12.
2000
Morelli, Giovanni, et al, eds.Sandro Botticelli: pittore della Divina Commedia. 2 vols. Exh. cat. Scuderie papali al Quirinale, Rome, 2000: 108-109.
2001
Blumenthal, Arthur, ed. Cosimo Rosselli: Painter of the Sistine Chapel. Exh. cat. Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, FL, 2001: 150-151, fig. 68.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 170-175, color repro.
2004
Nuttall, Paula. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500. New Haven and London, 2004: 217-218, fig. 236.
2005
Buonocore, Vincenzo M. Il marchese Alfonso Tacoli-Canacci: “onesto gentiluomo smaniante per la Pittura”. Reggio Emilia, 2005: 104, 218, fig. 80.
2005
Cecchi, Alessandro. Botticelli. Milan, 2005: 164, repro.
2005
Zöllner, Frank. Botticelli. Munich, London, and New York, 2005: 200-201, cat. 26.
2006
Fahy, Everett. "Early Italian paintings in Washington and Philadelphia." The Burlington Magazine 148, no. 1241 (August 2006): 540.
2006
Körner, Hans. Botticelli. Cologne, 2006: 91-93, fig. 94.
2009
Acidini, Cristina, William Dello Russo, and Federico Poletti. Botticelli nel suo tempo. Milan, 2009: 20-21, 96-98, 277, repro.
2010
Di Lorenzo, Andrea, ed. Botticelli nelle collezioni lombarde. Exh. cat. Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, 2010: 54, 56-57, repro.
2011
Johnson, Ken. “Getting Personal.” New York Times 161, no. 55,628 (December 23, 2011): C30, repro.
2011
Rubin, Patricia. "Understanding Renaissance Portraits." In Keith Christiansen and Stefan Weppelmann, eds. The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini Keith Christiansen and Stefan Weppelmann. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Bode Museum, Berlin 2011: 10.
2012
Luchs, Alison. "Verrocchio and the Bust of Albiera degli Albizzi: Portraits, Poetry and Commemoration." Artibus et historiae 33, no. 66 (2012): 84, 95 n. 40, repro.
2015
Rodeschini, Maria Cristina. “I Botticelli dell’Accademia Carrara di Bergamo: i risultati dei recenti restauri e nuovi esiti di studio.” In Gert Jan van der Sman and Irene Mariani, eds. Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510): Artist and Entrepreneur in Renaissance Florence. Florence, 2015: 64
2016
Madersbach, Lukas. "'fatto alla spera'? Das Porträt des Leon Battista Alberti aus den Orti Oricellari." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 58, no. 3 (2016, published February 2017): 319-347, esp. 340, 341 fig. 22, 342.
2018
Valagussa, Giovanni, ed. Accademia Carrara, Bergamo. Dipinti italiani del Trecento e del Quattrocento: Catalogo completo. Milan, 2018: 69-70, 72, fig. 1.
2019
Strehlke, Carl Brandon. Botticelli Portrait Painter. Marullo Adventurer Poet. London, 2019: 23, fig. 12.
2019
Walmsley, Elizabeth, Alexander J. Noelle, with Babette Hartwieg. "The Portraits of Giuliano de' Medici by Sandro Botticelli." Facture: conservation, science, art history 4 (2019): 2-33, 3 unnumbered fig. (detail), figs. 1, 12, 13, details: fig. 6a, 7, 8a, 9, 11, 14.
2019
Zambrano, Patrizia. "Sandro Botticelli and the birth of modern portraiture." In Ana Debenedetti and Caroline Elam, eds. Botticelli Past and Present. London, 2019: 21, 26-28, fig. 1.13.
2021
Debenedetti, Ana and Pierre Curie, eds. Botticelli, artiste & designer. Exh. cat. Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2021: 18, 133, 134, fig. 41.
2021
Debenedetti, Ana. Botticelli: Artist and Designer. London, 2021: 136-137, fig. 56.
2022
Acidini, Cristina. Botticelli. Pisa, 2022: 83-87, repro.
2022
Strehlke, Carl Brandon. “Botticelli’s Faces.” In Cecilia Frosinini and Rachel McGarry, eds. Botticelli and Renaissance Florence: Masterworks from the Uffizi. Exh. cat. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2022: 59, fig. 37.
2023
Frosinini, Cecilia. “The Under-Line: Revealing Drawing and Modeling Beneath Botticelli’s Paintings.” In Furio Rinaldi, ed. Botticelli Drawings. Exh. cat. Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 2023: 53-54, fig. 7a.

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