Uffizi
Art museum in Florence, Italy
The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
After the ruling House of Medici died out, their art collections were given to the city of Florence under the famous "Patto di famiglia" negotiated by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heiress. The Uffizi is one of the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1769 it was officially opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865.
History.
The building of the Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici as a means to consolidate his administrative control of the various committees, agencies, and guilds established in Florence's Republican past so as to accommodate them all in one place, hence the name , "offices". The construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti; it was completed in 1581. The top floor was made into a gallery for the family and their guests and included their collection of Roman sculptures.
The "cortile" (internal courtyard) is so long, narrow, and open to the Arno at its far end through a Doric screen that articulates the space without blocking it, that architectural historians treat it as the first regularized streetscape of Europe. Vasari, a painter, and architect as well, emphasized its perspective length by adorning it with the matching facades' continuous roof cornices, and unbroken cornices between storeys, as well as the three continuous steps on which the museum fronts stand. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns of the Loggiato are filled with sculptures of famous artists in the 19th century.
The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. The project was intended to display prime artworks of the Medici collections on the piano nobile; the plan was carried out by his son, Grand Duke Francesco I. He commissioned the architect Buontalenti to design the Tribuna degli Uffizi that would display a series of masterpieces in one room, including jewels; it became a highly influential attraction of a Grand Tour. The octagonal room was completed in 1584.
Over the years, more sections of the building were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculptures collected or commissioned by the Medici. For many years, 45 to 50 rooms were used to display paintings from the 13th to 18th century.
Modern times.
Because of its vast collection, some of the Uffizi's works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the museum's exhibition space some 6,000 metres2 (64,000 ft2) to almost 13,000 metres2 (139,000 ft2), allowing public viewing of many artworks that had usually been in storage.
The Nuovi Uffizi (New Uffizi) renovation project which started in 1989 was progressing well from 2015 to 2017. It was intended to modernize all of the halls and more than double the display space. A new exit was also planned and the lighting, air conditioning and security systems were updated. During construction, the museum remained open, although rooms were closed as necessary with the artwork temporarily moved to another location. For example, the Botticelli rooms and two others with early Renaissance paintings were closed for 15 months but reopened in October 2016.
Over two million visitors visited the Uffizi in 2016, making it the most visited art gallery in Italy. At peak periods (particularly in July), waiting times for entry can be up to five hours. Advance tickets can be bought online, to significantly reduce the waiting time. In 2018 a revised ticketing system was introduced to reduce queuing times to just minutes.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum was closed for 150 days in 2020, and attendance plunged by 72 percent to 659,043. Nonetheless, the Uffizi was twenty-seventh in the list of most-visited art museums in the world in 2020. Works from the Uffizi gallery collection are now available for remote viewing on Google Arts and Culture. The museum reopened in May 2021 following a renovation that included an addition of 14 new rooms and a display of additional 129 artworks, with the museum attempting to give more voice to historically under-represented groups including women and people of color.
Incidents.
On 27 May 1993, the Sicilian Mafia carried out a car bomb explosion in Via dei Georgofili which damaged parts of the palace and killed five people. The blast destroyed five pieces of art and damaged another 30. Some of the paintings were fully protected by bulletproof glass. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, which have since been restored, although its frescoes were damaged beyond repair.
On 22 July 2022, members of the climate activist group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) glued themselves to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli's "Primavera" demanding an end to fossil fuel usage. The painting was undamaged.
On 13 February 2024, members of Ultima Generazione glued images of flooding in Tuscany in 2023 to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in protest over the Italian government's inaction on climate change. The painting was undamaged and the images were removed.
Key works.
The collection also contains some ancient sculptures, such as the "Arrotino", the "Two Wrestlers", "Venus de' Medici", and the "Bust of Severus Giovanni".
References.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Portrait of Bia de' Medici
Painting by Bronzino
The Portrait of Bia de' Medici is a tempera on wood painting by the Italian Mannerist painter Agnolo Bronzino, dating to around 1542 and now in the Uffizi in Florence. For a long time it was displayed in the Tribuna at the heart of the museum, but since 2012 it has been moved to the "sale rosse" of the Nuovi Uffizi. A second portrait, by Pontormo, has also been argued to show Bia de' Medici, but this identification is disputed.
Description.
After her death, many art historians believe her father commissioned a posthumous painting of his illegitimate daughter by Agnolo Bronzino, which often is regarded as one of his finest works. The work is and was painted in tempera on wood. The painting is on display in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
Bronzino shows the child half-length and sitting on a chair, similar to the pose in his "Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi" – a rigid official pose offset by some hints of hand movement, as if the character was about to get up, along with an intense but emotionless gaze straight at the viewer. The face is lit and highlighted by the blue background, whilst the cold light and absence of any strong chiaroscuro effect accentuates the smoothness of the subject's complexion and idealises her features.
Bia has her hair parted in the middle of her forehead and a falling bob, with two carefully tied braids framing the face. She wears pearl earrings, a gold chain with a pendant or medallion with her father's profile on it, emphasizing her bond with her father. The medallions portrait of her father is modeled after a portrait of Cosimo by Pontormo and then made into a medallion by Domenico di Poli. The appearance of the medallion in the portrait helped to identify the subject as a daughter of Cosimo.
She also wears a sumptuous dress, made of blue satin with puffy sleeves, produced in the silk factories Cosimo was setting up in Florence at the time. With her right hand she is fiddling with the end or tassel of a golden chain or belt around her waist.
The portrait would have hung in the family's private rooms as a reminder to them of the dead child and an inspiration and guide on the path to salvation. As art historian Gabrielle Langdon argues, Bronzino painted the child with a halo effect, in "light-emitting white satin and pearls" as a metaphor for both her purported name "Bianca," which means "white" and her childish innocence. "Like (Petrarch's) 'Laura,' the posthumous "Bia" is a riveting emanation from Heaven who bestows purifying grace on the beholder," Langdon wrote in the 2004 collection "The Cultural World of Eleanora Di Toledo".
Identification.
Until 1893 it was thought to represent Maria de' Medici, the younger legitimate sister of Bia and that the name "Bia" was a contraction or nickname of Maria. This was until the Italian painter, restorer and art historian Cosimo Conti found archival evidence for the existence for a daughter of Cosimos by the name of Bia.
Some other researchers like Maike Vogt-Lüerssen however argues the viewpoint held previously that the portrait actually depicts Bia's younger, legitimate half sister, Maria de' Medici. Vogt-Lüerssen says in an article in "Medicea – Rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei" that the subject of the portrait was identified as Maria until the 1950s and the pearls depicted in the portrait were a common symbol of the Medicis, often worn by legitimate female members of the house. Such pearl necklaces were a common fashionable accessory for women of the Italian nobility.
Vogt-Lüerssen believes that the child depicted in a famous portrait by Pontormo with Maria Salviati is actually Bia, her eldest granddaughter, because group portraits in that era depicted family members with close blood relationships and Salviati's two younger granddaughters, Maria and Isabella, were too young at Salviati's death to be the 5- or 6-year-old girl in the portrait.
Other equally credible identifications for the child in the Pontormo painting have also been put forth, such as Giulia de' Medici, the daughter of Cosimo de Medicis predecessor. After her father Alessandro de' Medicis assassination his daughter was put in the care of Maria Salviati.
Influence.
Regardless of which Medici daughter it depicts, the painting has continued to inspire modern artists. American sculptor Joseph Cornell's 1948 sculpture "Medici Princess" incorporates Bronzino's portrait of the girl. The sculpture, one of a series depicting members of the Medici family, shows an enameled reproduction of Bronzino's portrait in a dark wooden box, behind a blurred, deep blue glass pane. On either side of the main portrait are smaller vignette reproductions of the same portrait, behind glass as well. Below the girl's image, in a pull-out drawer, are a feather and a floor plan of the palace in Florence that was once her home. The sculpture, which is owned by a private collector, was on display during a recent retrospective of Cornell's work originating with the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Isabella de Borchgrave recreated Bia de Medici in paper.
The portrait of Bia has also been recreated (wearing a scuba diving mask) by the street artist Blub in Lerici and Ravenna.
Bia de' Medici.
Bia de' Medici, (c. 1536 – 1 March 1542) was the illegitimate daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, born before his first marriage.
The identity of Bia's mother is not known, but Cosimo I was likely no older than sixteen when he fathered her. According to Edgcumbe Staley's "The Tragedies of the Medici", some stories said the girl's mother was a village girl from Trebbio, where the Medicis had built one of their first villas, while others said she was a gentlewoman from Florence. Only Cosimo I and the girl's paternal grandmother, Maria Salviati, knew the identity of the girl's mother, but Salviati refused to reveal it, though she did acknowledge Bia was the daughter of Cosimo.
Staley wrote that the little girl was called La Bia, short for "Bambina" ("little girl" or "baby"). The name might also have been short for Bianca or perhaps a classical name, deriving from Pallas' daughter. Staley wrote that her father's new wife, Eleonora di Toledo, refused to tolerate her presence in the palace after their marriage, so Cosimo sent her off to the Villa di Castello, her paternal grandmother's chief residence north of Florence. However, other more reliable reports indicate that her stepmother "brought her up very lovingly." Her paternal grandmother supervised the nurseries for all of the children of Cosimo I. All of them, not only Cosimo's illegitimate daughter, spent most of their time at the Villa di Castello and were raised by nurses, with minimal day-to-day contact with their parents, though both Cosimo and Eleonora heard reports of their progress and offered directions for their education, their living arrangements, and the clothing they wore. Bia shared her nursery with Giulia de' Medici, the illegitimate daughter of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, who was close to her in age. She grew into a high-spirited, loving little girl who kept her grandmother and nurses entertained with her antics. Bia's father adored his first-born child, and her paternal grandmother, Maria Salviati, said the little girl "was the comfort of our court, being so very affectionate."
Both Bia and her cousin Giulia contracted a fast-moving fever in February 1542, from which Giulia recovered but Bia did not. Cosimo I received almost daily reports of Bia's worsening condition from his mother, Maria Salviati. The child grew weaker between 25 February and 28 February and finally died on 1 March 1542. She was buried in the Medici family crypt in San Lorenzo.
When her legitimate half-sister Isabella de' Medici was born six months after her death, her father rejoiced to have another daughter. Contemporaries who might normally have consoled him on his wife's failure to present him with a second son instead congratulated him on her birth, knowing how he had grieved for the loss of Bia. "(I) congratulate you on the beautiful baby girl God has conceded to you in recompense for the one he has taken to join him in paradise," wrote Paolo Giovio after the birth of Isabella. A comparison of portraits of Bia and Isabella reveal that, had she lived past early childhood, Bia likely would have closely resembled her half-sister Isabella, who shared her reddish-blonde hair, brown eyes, and dainty features.
Pontormo painting.
In a portrait by Pontormo, the child's identification, according to the Walters Art Museum and scholarship sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities is likely to be Giulia de' Medici. However, Maike Vogt-Lüerssen argues in an article in "Medicea – Rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei" that the child in the portrait with Maria Salviati is actually Salviati's granddaughter Bia de' Medici. She believes that the child does not resemble the known portrait of an adult Giulia de' Medici and that the relationship between Maria Salviati and Giulia was not close enough to have warranted a portrait. Most group portraits were of family members with close blood ties.
Some art historians once identified the child as a young Cosimo I de' Medici, but it is now generally accepted to be Giulia. The child in the portrait appears to be a little girl, rather than a boy, and her expression is anxious. Maria Salviati, who is dressed soberly as befitted a widow, is seen sheltering the vulnerable child against her side. Art historian Gabrielle Langdon argues that the girl's demeanor in the portrait is different than would have been expected for the child Cosimo, whose family anticipated his role as a strong leader from his earliest days. It would have been to Cosimo I's advantage to commission a portrait depicting his mother as an exemplary widow, affectionately bringing up the orphaned daughter of Cosimo I's predecessor. The child's full lips, round nose, and curly reddish hair also bear little resemblance to known portraits of Cosimo as a child, though they do to portraits of the young Alessandro. Other girls of about the right age who were at court during this period also do not resemble the child in the portrait. The portrait might be one of the first in Renaissance-era Europe of a girl of presumed African and European ancestry. This painting is in the permanent collection of The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
The portrait has also been identified with other women, such as Isabella or Maria.

Maria Salviati
Florentine noblewoman
Maria Salviati (17 July 1499 – 29 December 1543) was a Florentine noblewoman, the daughter of Lucrezia di Lorenzo de' Medici and Jacopo Salviati. She married Giovanni delle Bande Nere and was the mother of Cosimo I de Medici. Her husband died 30 November 1526, leaving her a widow at the age of 27. Salviati never remarried; after her husband's death she adopted the somber garb of a novice, which is how she is remembered today as numerous late portraits show her attired in black and white.
Life.
Maria Salviati was born in Florence. She descended from two of Florence's most powerful banking families: the Salviati on her father's side, and the de' Medici on her mother's. Her maternal grandfather was Lorenzo "il Magnifico".
When her cousin, Alessandro de' Medici was assassinated in 1537, Maria used her family connections to get involved in the discussions to decide the next Duke of Florence. She played a key role in getting her son, Cosimo I de' Medici, elected.
Bia de' Medici.
Maria set up residence at Villa di Castello in northern Florence, where she would look after her grandchildren. Her son Cosimo had an illegitimate daughter named Bia de' Medici. Maria described Bia as a very happy and talkative little girl, often having long conversations with her.
Cosimo married Eleonora di Toledo in 1539. It was rumoured that Eleonora refused to tolerate Bia's presence in the palace after their marriage so Cosimo sent Bia off to live with Maria. Other sources say that Eleonora brought Bia up very lovingly. Bia shared a nursery with Giulia de' Medici an illegitimate daughter of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, the pair being close in age. Maria knew who Bia's mother was but she would never tell Bia or anyone else the name of the woman. Both Bia and her cousin Giulia contracted a virulent fever; Giulia recovered from the illness but Bia only worsened and eventually died on 1 March 1542 aged only five years. Maria and Cosimo were said to be very sad by her loss.
Maria died one year after Bia on 29 December 1543.
Portrait of Maria Salviati with Giulia de' Medici.
In the portrait called "Maria Salviati with Giulia de' Medici", there are many theories on who the portrait portrays. However, the almost universally accepted portrait is the one depicted by Pontormo in 1543-1544. The different theories arise from the overpainting of the portrait as well as the views of different sellers.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the work was attributed to Piombo where the portrait looked different by the child being taken out and the single women identified as being Vittoria Colonna. In 1937, the overpaint done by Piombo was removed, revealing the child where Edward S. King (1940) believed the child to be a boy publishing it as the work of "Maria Salviati and Her Son Cosimo." Others came forward disagreeing with the sex of the child based on the King's argument. It was not until 1992, where Gabrielle Langdon proposed the painting of the child to not only be a girl, but Giulia de' Medici. He was able to discover this based on the different attributes the painting held. He pointed out that the child was under the age of 7, the connection between the bare throat of Maria's and the child is strong showing femininity, as well as being shown as vulnerable under the protection of Maria Salviati.
Descendants.
Salviati's descendants became crowned figureheads of Europe over the succeeding generations. Her grandson Francesco I de' Medici married Johanna of Austria; they were the parents of Eleonora de' Medici, who married Vincenzo I Gonzaga and was the mother of Francesco IV Gonzaga. Francesco and Johanna's other daughter was Marie de' Medici, who married Henry IV of France and was the mother of Louis XIII of France and Henrietta Maria of France. Louis was the father of Louis XIV of France, Henrietta Maria was the mother of Charles II of England and James II of England.
Influence on Medicine.
Maria Salviati had an influence on medicine that is not as pronounced as other aspects of her life. Her influence with medicine is expressed in daily care routine and critical decision making which brought her into contact with many different professionals of medicine. The beginning of her interaction with medicine took place in the 1530-1540's as a household healer. Her familiarities arose in remedies and health regimens which left impacts on pharmacy, pediatrics, and local healing. It was believed that Maria Salviati, with her social standing, had access to information that promoted health literacy such as manuscripts. Most of them being handwritten recipe books that provided a basis for medical authority for women in order to navigate problems and pharmaceutical practices. One of the more significant recipe books believed to be in Salviati's hand was an Italian recipe book compiled by Caterina Sforza (1463-1509), her mother-in-law. Part of the book contained recipes for powders and pills to cure fever, elixirs to strengthen the body, and concoctions to help with infection. With this underlying knowledge of remedies, Salviati was able to experiment and develop a "secrete" remedy for intestinal worms which were found mostly in children.
Maria Salviati's influence in medicine abundant with pediatrics. With her medical knowledge, she partook in overseeing practices with Wet nursing and the selection process, which was uncommon at the time, for the Medici ducal couple's offspring. Over the years, she continued to oversee the Medici children with their health statuses mainly through Humorism reasoning and influences of celestial bodies.
The Death of Maria Salviati.
Syphilis became a prominent disease around the time of Maria's existence. Maria Salviati's skeletal remains showed skeletal lesions, corresponding to effects syphilis has in the third stage of the infection. In the 1540s, Maria started to decline in health where the court physician, Andrea Pasquali, included symptoms such as recurring proctorrhagia, headaches, and rectal and perianal ulcers. To further back the evidence of Maria's effect with syphilis, scientists and archeologist exhumed her skeletal remains and performed studies. Studies showed that Maria had lytic brain lesions in her skull which strongly suggest tertiary syphilis.
References.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Giulia de' Medici
Illegitimate daughter of Alessandro de' Medici
Giulia Romola di Alessandro de' Medici (c. 1535 – c. 1588) was the illegitimate daughter of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence and his mistress Taddea Malaspina.
Following her father's assassination, she was reared at the court of Cosimo I de' Medici and married advantageously twice.
Early life.
A child named Giulia Romola, with an unknown father, was baptized in Florence on November 5, 1535; this was probably Giulia. Close to this date, her father had commissioned a portrait of himself drawing a female profile in silverpoint. Art historians believe the portrait may have been intended as a gift for his mistress, Taddea Malaspina, the sister of the marchioness of Massa, to commemorate the birth of their second child, Giulia. Giulia also had an older full brother, Giulio di Alessandro de' Medici, and at least one half-sister, Porzia de' Medici.
After her father's assassination in 1537 and the ensuing power struggle among the Medici for control of Florence and of the family, Giulia and her brother Giulio were taken from their mother and placed under the guardianship of Alessandro's successor, Cosimo I de' Medici. Cosimo promised to treat the children well and their rooms were as opulent as those of his own children. Maria Salviati, the mother of Cosimo I, supervised the nurseries and watched over Giulia's bedside anxiously when the little girl became ill in February 1542. Giulia survived the fever, but her companion in the nursery, Cosimo I's illegitimate daughter Bia de' Medici, died.
As she grew up, Giulia was completely integrated into life at court and was educated to a high standard, as were the daughters and other female wards of Cosimo I. As much attention was paid to Giulia's appearance as to that of Cosimo I's daughters. When she was twelve or thirteen, Cosimo I's wife Eleonora of Toledo was outraged because Giulia's riding cloak did not look right; it was not decorated as she had ordered and it was the wrong length. Courtiers noted that the young Giulia was "the image of her father." Cosimo arranged an advantageous marriage for her with Francesco Cantelmo, the Duke of Popoli, in 1550, when she was about fifteen years old, and provided a dowry for her of an amount that would be worth about eight million United States dollars today.
Pontormo portrait.
 Giulia is likely the child depicted in a portrait by Pontormo which shows Maria Salviati with a young child. The child had been painted out of the portrait and her image was not detected until 1937.
Some art historians once identified the child as a young Cosimo I de' Medici, but it is now generally accepted to be Giulia. The child in the portrait appears to be a little girl, rather than a boy, and her expression is anxious. Maria Salviati, who is dressed soberly as befitted a widow, is seen sheltering the vulnerable child against her side. Art historian Gabrielle Langdon argues that the girl's demeanor in the portrait is different than would have been expected for the child Cosimo, whose family anticipated his role as a strong leader from his earliest days. It would have been to Cosimo I's advantage to commission a portrait depicting his mother as an exemplary widow, affectionately bringing up the orphaned daughter of Cosimo I's predecessor. The child's full lips, round nose, and curly reddish hair also bear little resemblance to known portraits of Cosimo as a child, though they do to portraits of the young Alessandro. Other girls of about the right age who were at court during this period also do not resemble the child in the portrait. The portrait might be one of the first in Renaissance-era Europe of a girl of presumed African and European ancestry. This painting is in the permanent collection of The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
Maike Vogt-Lüerssen argues in an article in "Medicea – Rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei" that the child in the portrait with Maria Salviati is actually Salviati's granddaughter Bia de' Medici. She believes that the child does not resemble the known portrait of an adult Giulia de' Medici and that the relationship between Maria Salviati and Giulia was not close enough to have warranted a portrait. Most group portraits were of family members with close blood ties.
Later life.
Giulia's paternity was not seen as a disadvantage at court. Her descent from the main Medici line was honored; her father's assassination was compared with the assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus. Through her mother, Giulia was related to Pope Innocent VIII. She displayed great pride in her family lineage and self-assurance. After the death of her first husband, Francesco Cantelmo, in 1555, the artist Alessandro Allori painted a second well-known portrait of Giulia, who was now in her mid-twenties. She was portrayed as a widow. To her left in the portrait is an intricately carved chair. Its sloping arm may represent steep terrain; art historian Gabrielle Langdon said she detected a faint climbing figure there which may represent Hercules. The Choice of Hercules was a popular allegory during the Renaissance about the victory of virtuous action over vice. Mario de Valdes y Cocom, a historian of the African diaspora, argues that the sloping arm of the chair also represents Monte della Verna, which Saint Bonaventure, a Christian scholastic theologian and philosopher, visited and where he was inspired to write his "Itinerarium mentis in Deum". Bonaventure visited La Verna because this was the location where Francis of Assisi had a vision of a six-winged seraph and received the stigmata. Mario de Valdes y Cocom writes that Giulia's grandmother Simonetta da Collevecchio, who was possibly of North African descent, married a mule driver from Collevecchio, a site associated with Monte della Verna. Her father Alessandro was insulted by people who called him Alessandro Collevecchio. Historians believe that the artist is alluding to Bonaventure's Neo-Platonic view of God as "the Divine Darkness". Some modern scholars see the painting as Giulia's response to criticism of her grandmother's north African descent and marriage to the mule driver from Collevecchio.
During her widowhood she often stayed at the Augustinian convent of San Clemente on San Gallo, where her sister Porzia was abbess. Giulia is recorded as a patron of this convent as well as other Augustinian convents.
A second advantageous marriage was arranged for her soon after with Bernadetto de' Medici, a first cousin of Cosimo I. She married him on August 14, 1559. Their son Alessandro, who was named for her father, was born the following year on December 17, 1560. During the early years of her marriage to Bernadetto, they entertained lavishly and she may have accompanied her husband on diplomatic missions.
Sometime in the 1560s, her relationship with her former guardian may have cooled when Giulia insisted that she be treated as an equal to Cosimo I's mistress, who was regarded with general disdain at court. Other sources indicate that she and her husband were still in good standing with the court when they moved to Naples in 1567. There they battled successfully to win the title and lands to the principality of Ottaviano (see also Princes of Ottajano), which their descendants hold today.
Notes.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Portrait of a Young Man with a Book (Bronzino)
Painting by Bronzino
The Portrait of a Young Man with a Book is a painting by Agnolo Bronzino created in the 1530s. After its creation, it was owned amongst various aristocrats and art collectors until it entered the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1929. The painting was commissioned by the powerful Florentine family, the Medici. Bronzino worked as court artist for Cosimo I de' Medici where he became the leading portrait painter in Florence. Bronzino's style of portraits transitioned from more natural to idealized instead, and this shift is evident in the composition of "Portrait of a Young Man with a Book", which depicts a young man with his fingers placed inside of a book. Infared reflectology reveals that Bronzino deliberately made changes to achieve his goals for the portrait. This painting has many interpretations as it is unclear who the sitter is exactly.
Patron, artist, and commission.
Agnolo Bronzino painted "Portrait of a Young Man with a Book" around the 1530s for Cosimo I de' Medici. The Medici family was the dominant family in Florence from the 15th century up till the 18th century. They were a long line of merchants, bankers, rulers, as well as art patrons and collectors. International trade made them one of the most powerful and wealthiest families in Italy.
Bronzino served as court painter for Cosimo I de' Medici, the Duke of Tuscany. Cosimo I was more powerful than any previous Medici. After Bronzino helped with the decoration for Cosimo I's wedding in 1539, his career as court artist began. Bronzino lead a tapestry weaving project for Cosimo I due to the Duke's dream to have a tapestry cycle that would rival those of the princes in Europe. In the end, he was responsible for the design of sixteen of the weavings. Bronzino played a key role in helping to achieve Cosimo I's goal of creating a court that would rival those of the European princes. At the same time, Bronzino painted a series of court portraits of the Duke, the Duchess, and their children. Bronzino remade the Duke's official portrait many times. Bronzino's portraits of Cosimo I and his family were made to display Cosimo I's power and authority, and further helped Cosimo I's goal of establishing the Medici family as a powerful presence and player in Florence. In 1551, Bronzino joined the Ducal family in Pisa to paint more portraits of the Medici children. In 1554, Bronzino was replaced as the favored Medici court artist.
Description.
Bronzino's "Portrait of a Young Man" depicts an unknown youthful man standing in a Florentine palace with his left hand on his hip, while his right hand holds a book, as his fingers fall between the pages. Scholars have noted that while there are no clues offered by Bronzino as to the type the book that the sitter holds—the binding is not shown and no words appear on the page—it has been suggested it is perhaps a book of poetry based on its rather small size and the fact that the papers' edges have been gilded.
The subject leans against a table that looks to be carved from purple stone. The table has intricate details, including an engraved grotesque or gargoyle figures. The grotesque mask-like face shares similarities with the other two grotesque faces found on the arm chair to the right of the mans left arm, and in the folds of his breeches. The contorted faces add visual contrast to the subject's stern and aloof facial features. The sitter's misaligned left eye that turns outward represents exotropia. This can affect binocular vision and improper depth perception.
The youthful sitter is adorned in a color coordinated outfit. Equipped with a black doublet made to look of satin, he wears slashed sleeves that were an elite status symbol in fashion at the time. Furthermore, the jagged edges of the sleeves demonstrate Bronzino's interest in detailed features that are characteristic of the Manneristic style of the time. He also wears a "camicia", a type of shirt with a white ruffled collar, along with a blue belt, a ring on his left pinky finger, and a cap and ties that are decorated with gold aglets ("ciondoli").
Interpretation and analysis.
Bronzino was an avid poet and quite interested in the expressive power of books. He often displayed his admiration of changing the meaning of an everyday object into something else throughout many of his poems. This concept is displayed within the portrait itself through the grotesque trio of grotesque mask-like faces (discussed above) that exude a sense of playfulness creating a contrast from the dignity and elegance of the portrait.
Identification of the sitter.
Although the identity of the sitter remains unknown, there have