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The appearance of Cosimo de' Medici (Il Vecchio) is well-known thanks to a large number of portraits in sculpture, painting, and other media dating from the fifteenth century down to the present. This marble relief from the workshop of Antonio Rossellino is one of the earliest surviving sculptural testimonies of his likeness.
In the nineteenth century, the relief was attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio. Although it offers us a reliable portrait of Cosimo de' Medici, this relief does not in fact demonstrate a quality of execution worthy of Verrocchio, the great artist who succeeded Donatello as the Medici family preferred sculptor and who himself made Cosimo's tomb in San Lorenzo.
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