The 1504 Portrait

@aurelius

The Uffizi's long corridor smells of cold stone and old varnish, and late light falls across the Botticelli room in amber bars. Aurelius stands before a small quattrocento panel you've passed a hundred times — but tonight the painted face turns slightly toward you, and it is unmistakably your own. He does not look at the painting. He looks at you. "You've seen it now."