Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, called Sandro Botticelli

Thence probably by descent to his son, Thomas John Wynn, 2nd Lord Newborough (1802-1832), Glynllifon Park, Llanwnda, Caernarvon;

Thence probably by inheritance to his brother, Spencer Bulkeley Wynn, 3^rd Lord Newborough (1803-1888), Glynllifon Park, Llanwnda, Caernarvon;

Thence by descent to his youngest son, Frederick George Wynn (1853-1932), Glynllifon Park, Llanwnda, Caernarvon;

Thence by inheritance to his nephew Thomas John Wynn (1878–1957), 5th Lord Newborough, Glynllifon Park, Llanwnda, Caernarvon;

From whom acquired by Frank Sabin, circa 1935;

By whom sold to Sir Thomas Ralph Merton (1888–1969), Stubbings s House, Maidenhead, by May 1941;

Thence by descent to his wife, Violet Marjory Merton (1891–1976);

By whose Trustees sold ("The Property of the late Lady Merton, sold by Order of the Trustees"), London, Christie’s, 10 December 1982, lot 92 (as a "Portrait of Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de' Medici");

Where acquired by the present owner.

London, National Gallery, on loan, 24 November 1969 – 17 February 1978;

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan, 26 February 1987 – 24 January 1989;

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, on loan, 19 April 1990 – 15 May 2013;

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo’s ‘Ginevra de' Benci’ and Renaissance Portraits of Women, 30 September 2001 – 6 January 2002, no. 26;

Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, Botticelli: Likeness. Myth. Devotion, 13 November 2009 – 28 February 2010, no. 19;

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan, 15 May 2013 – 25 February 2020.

A. Scharf, A Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings from the collects ion of Sir Thomas Merton at Stubbings s House, Maidenhead, London 1950, pp. 7, 14, no. III, reproduced p. 15 and in detail on the frontispiece (as a "Portrait of Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de' Medici";

Italian Art and Britain, Winter Exhibition, exh. cat., London 1960, pp. 127–128, no. 345, reproduced in the illustrated souvenir, p. 13 (medallion verbally identified by Richard Offner as a work of the Ovile Master, c. 1350);

F. Haskell, "Italian Art and Britain. The Winter Exhibition at the Royal Academy," Connoisseur, vol. 145, March 1960, reproduced p. 39-40, no. 3, reproduced;

D. Sutton, "Italian Art through British Eyes. The Winter Exhibition at Burlington House," Country Life, 7 January 1960, pp. 16–17, reproduced;

R. Longhi, "Uno sguardo alle fotografie della Mostra ‘Italian Art and Britain’ alla Royal Academy di Londra," Paragone, May 1960, vol. XI, no. 125, p. 61 (as 'Botticini?');

R. Oertel, "England und die italienische Kunst," Kunstchronik, vol. 13, April 1960, p. 92, reproduced p. 103, fig. 1a;

J. Guillerme, L'atelier du temps: Essai sur l’altération des peintures, Paris 1964, p. 78, reproduced opposite p. 162;

A. Chastel, The Flowering of the Italian Renaissance, New York 1965 (The Golden Age of the Renaissance. Italy 1460–1500, London 1965), pp. 319–320;

E. Fahy, "Some Early Italian Pictures in the Gambier Parry collects ion," The Burlington Magazine, vol. 109, no. 768, March 1967, p. 137 (as Francesco Botticini);

B. Moloney, Florence and England. Essays on cultural relations in the second half of the eighteenth century, Florence 1969, p. 35;

"Art News in Pictures," Connoisseur, vol. 173, no. 696, February 1970, p. 123, reproduced (as loaned to the National Gallery, London, by Lady Merton);

H. Hartley and D. Gabor, Thomas Ralph Merton. 1888–1920, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, London 1970, p. 434;

S. Legouix, Botticelli, London 1977, p. 52, no. 27, reproduced;

R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, 1978, vol. II, p. 160, no. 33 (under the section "other paintings attributed to Botticelli or his school");

K. Langedijk, The Portraits of the Medici, 15th–18th Centuries, Florence 1981, vol. I, p. 36, 1983, vol. II, p. 1045, no. 57,10, reproduced (categorized as "Uncertain Identifications" with reference to the sitter);

F. Davis, "Imperiously Portrayed," in Country Life, vol. 173, issue 4457, 20 January 1983, p. 138;

L. Castelfranchi Vegas, Italia e Fiandra nella pittura del Quattrocento, Milan 1983, p. 228, n. 20;

R. Stapleford, "Botticelli’s portrait of a young man holding a trecento medallion," The Burlington Magazine, vol. 129, no. 1012, July 1987, pp. 428–436;

K. Christiansen, "Botticelli’s portrait of a young man with a Trecento medallion," The Burlington Magazine, vol. 129, no. 1016, November 1987, p. 744;

S. Sabin, Letter to the Editor, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 129, no. 1016, November 1987, p. 744;

N. Pons, Botticelli: catalogo completo, Milan 1989, p. 61, under no. 33 (discussed in tandem with the Uffizi portrait);

J. Steinhoff-Morrison, Bartolomeo Bulgarini and Sienese painting of the mid-fourteenth century, doctoral dissertation (Princeton University), 1989, pp. 354-358, cat. no. 6, reproduced figs. 6 and 6a;

C. Caneva, Botticelli. Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1990, p. 149, no. 26A, reproduced p. 148 (under known works of uncertain attribution);

H. Belting, Bild und Kult: Eine Geschichte des Bildes vor dem Zeitalter der Kunst, Munich 1990, pp. 471 and 661 n. 26, reproduced p. 469, fig. 253;

H.F. von Sonnenburg, "Zur Technik der Goldgrundtafeln," in Frühe Italienische Gemälde aus dem Bestand der Alten Pinakothek, Munich 1990, pp. 30–31, 32 n. 10, reproduced in color p. 31;

F. Borsi et al., 'Per bellezza, per studio, per piacere’, Lorenzo il Magnifico e gli spazi dell'arte, Florence 1991, p. 184;

P. Kathke, Porträt und Accessoire. Eine Bildnisform im 16. Jahrhundert, Berlin 1997, pp. 185–187, 278, fig. 131;

G. Dalli Regoli, Il gesto e la mano. Convenzione e invenzione nel linguaggio figurativo fra Medioevo e Rinascimento, Florence 2000, p. 46, reproduced pl. 86 (location incorrectly given as Royal Academy, London);  

D.A. Brown, in Virtue and Beauty, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C. 2001, pp. 177–179, cat. no. 26, reproduced in color p. 176 and as a detail p. 179;

K. Krüger, "Medium and Imagination: Aesthetic Aspects of Trecento Panel Paintings,"  in Studies in the History of Art , 2002, vol. 61, pp. 59, 77-78, notes 10-11, reproduced p. 59;

D. Dombrowski, "Terrae Praisens Non Abest ab Aethere Botticellis Mann mit.mes daille als Beitrag zum Menschenbild des späten Quattrocento," in Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, vol. 65, 2004, pp. 53–54, reproduced fig. 15, and p. 70, nn. 148–153 (as dated circa 1490);

M. Boskovits, "Una mostra su Botticelli e Filippino," Arte Cristiana, 825, November–December 2004, 92, pp. 417–418, reproduced in color p. 416, fig. 12 (as datable to the first half of the 1470s and rejects an attribution to Botticini);

A. Cecchi, Botticelli, Milan 2005, p. 178 n. 73 (as dated later than the Portrait of a young man with a medal of Cosimo I, Uffizi, which he dates to circa 1475-1476);

N. Penny, "Reviews of exhibitions: Virtue and Beauty," Renaissance studies, 19, 2005, 2, pp. 244;

F. Zöllner, Sandro Botticelli, Munich 2005, pp. 53, 197, 276, no. 95, reproduced p. 277 (under "contested and uncertain attributions");

U. Pfisterer, Lysippus und seine Freunde. Liebesgaben und Gedächtnis im Rom der Renaissance oder: Das erste Jahrhundert der Medaille, Berlin 2008, pp. 34–35, reproduced p. 37, fig. 16;

A. Nagel, "Icons and Early Modern Portaits," in El retrato del Renacimiento, M. Falomir (ed.), exhibition catalogue, Madrid 2008, pp. 421–25, nn. 22-26, reproduced figs. 15 and 23;

A. Rühl, in Botticelli: Likeness. Myth. Devotion, A. Schumacher (ed.), exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt am Main, 2009, pp. 198–201, no. 19, reproduced in color p. 199 and as a detail p. 201;

D. Dombrowski, "Savonarola und die heiligen Bilder: ein Problem der Botticelli-Forschung," in Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft, 36, 2009, p. 95, 111 nn. 86–89, reproduced fig. 15 (as dated circa 1490 or shortly after);

A. Nagel and C. Wood, Anachronic Renaissance, New York 2010, pp. 115–19, 122-123, 128, 155, 178-179, 184, 396 nn. 22–26, reproduced fig. 11.7;

K. Schreyer, Shakespeare's Medieval Craft: Remnants of the Mysteries on the London Stage, Ithaca 2014, pp. 38–42, reproduced fig. 2 and on the cover;

L. Berti, "Botticelli. Approccio nel nuovo millennio," in Gli Uffizi. Studi e Ricerche, 31. I libri, F. Chezzi (ed.), Florence 2015, p. 85 and reproduced p. 84, fig. 9.