In January, during the New York Week of Old Masters, Sotheby's will put up for auction "

“I have been working with paintings by old masters for three decades.. Items of such a high level and in such stunning state of preservation are extremely rare, ”says Christopher Eposle, head of the Old Master Painting Department at Sotheby's.. He adds that the uniqueness of the work naturally reflected in its price..

Portraits by the Florentine master, best known for his allegorical paintings " “We know of only a dozen portraits of Botticelli that have survived to this day,” says Eposl. Three of them are in private hands, and the rest are part of the museum collections. The expert is sure that the " Apparently, they were all written at approximately the same time - between the mid-1470s and early 1480s..

" “If we talk about the illusionism of the High Renaissance: about complex architectural forms, linear perspective, two vanishing points, as well as bold work with color, all these elements are present in the work,” says Eposl. "

The expert pays special attention to how skillfully the model's finger is written on the edge of the window, in which the young man is depicted. This is the only part of the picture where a light shadow is guessed.. “Barely noticeable, but at the same time far from accidental detail. She adds a psychological dimension to the portrait - the previous generation of portrait painters were simply not interested in such things, ”says Eposl.

Botticelli's current auction record was set in 2013, when the so-called " In October 2019, Trinity Fine Art exhibited a $ 30 million portrait at the Frieze Masters in London, presented as Botticelli's last painting still in private hands, but the gallery was unable to sell it at the fair.. The portrait of a mature man, created in a later period (about 1500), was not in the best condition, although for 12 years it was in temporary use of the Madrid Prado.

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In December, the work will be on display in London, and then travel to New York's Sotheby's, where it will remain until the auction.. They are planned to be held in a hybrid format with live broadcast, first tested by the auction house during the pandemic..

Source: theartnewspaper.