Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder of the Medici family (including, possibly, Cosimo de' Medici himself) or, as he personally felt more likely, Antonio Botticelli, Botticelli's brother. This, he asserts, is based on the strength of the likeness of the youth to Botticelli himself, as portrayed in his "Adoration of the Magi". Antonio Botticelli had also recast and gilded medals, working in the court of the Medicis. However, he would have been about 40 at the time of the portrait. Frederick Hartt suggested it might be Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici ("Il Poplano", 1463–1503), whose two certain portraits, both profiles on medals, vary considerably, though one
Adoration of the Magi from various Mediterranean and ancient Near Eastern cultures going back many centuries. The earliest are from catacomb paintings and sarcophagus reliefs of the 4th century. Crowns are first seen in the 10th century, mostly in the West, where their dress had by that time lost any Oriental flavour in most cases. The standard Byzantine depiction of the Nativity included the journey or arrival of the mounted Magi in the background, but not them presenting their gifts, until the post-Byzantine period, when the western depiction was often adapted to an icon style. Later Byzantine images often show small pill-box like hats,