A young man with long, wavy hair gazes outward, his head slightly tilted and his lips gently parted in a reserved expression. He wears a bright red cap that stands out against his pale skin and the dark, featureless background. His brown garment is trimmed with a delicate, twisted cord running down the center, and two white slashes at the shoulders reveal the linen beneath.

The youth’s right hand is raised to his chest, with three fingers extended in an elegant, almost theatrical gesture, while the thumb and pinky are relaxed. The light falls softly from the left, illuminating his forehead, nose, and hand, and casting subtle shadows along his cheek and neck, which gives the face a sculptural quality. Fine brushwork is visible in the rendering of his hair, where individual strands are picked out in golden tones, and in the smooth modeling of his skin, which shows a gentle gradation from light to shadow.

The background is a deep, unmodulated black, which isolates the figure and focuses attention on his features and gesture. The composition is tightly cropped, with the youth filling nearly the entire panel, his torso cut off at the bottom by a narrow ledge. Small details, such as the careful depiction of the fingernails and the subtle folds in the sleeve, reveal the artist’s attention to naturalistic detail. The subject is a young adult man, as noted in the museum’s records and the painting’s title.

Portrait of a Young Man is attributed to Sandro Botticelli, a leading painter of the Italian Renaissance. Art historian Bernard Berenson attributed the painting to Botticelli in 1922. The work is part of the Andrew W.

Mellon collection.