Encountering Botticelli’s ‘Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel’

Artist and photographer Erik Madigan Heck discusses the evolution of his style and the impact on him of his first encounter with Sandro Botticelli’s ‘Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel’, thought to have been painted around 1480.

The painting sold for $92.2 million at auction at Sotheby’s in January, a record for the Renaissance painter, and the highest price paid for an old master work since Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ sold for $450 million in 2017.

The identity of the portrait’s subject is unknown, but analysts suggest it could be someone from the Medici family, as Lorenzo de’ Medici was one of Botticelli’s main benefactors. The painting is believed to represent the beauty ideals of Florentine high society during the Renaissance.

Inspired by this extraordinary portrait, Heck shares how Botticelli and the innovations of the Renaissance have influenced his own work – a multimedia practice of painting, photography and music.

View the original video here.

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