Introduced by his father to the profession of goldsmith and by Filippo Lippi to that of a painter, at the age of twenty-five Botticelli already ran his own workshop in Florence whose most prestigious clients were members of the Medici family. In this panel the artist passes down to posterity the image of Giuliano de' Medici, younger brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent and a skilled knight, murdered on 26 April 1478 in Florence during the Pazzi Conspiracy. To denounce and remember his death Lorenzo had a medal minted by the family sculptor, Bertoldo di Giovanni. A marble bust was made from the funeral mask which Botticelli used as a model for the painting, of which three versions are known: this one from Carrara - perhaps the oldest, although probably unfinished - and two others kept in Berlin and Washington.