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Agnolo Bronzino
(1503-1572)
Bronzino, Agnolo (Agnolo di Cosimo) (1503-72). Florentine Mannerist
painter, the pupil and adopted son of Pontormo, who introduced his portrait
as a child into his painting Joseph in Egypt (National Gallery,
London).
The origin of his nickname is uncertain, but possibly derived from his
having a dark complexion. Bronzino was deeply attached to Pontormo and
his style was heavily indebted to his master. However, Bronzino lacked
the emotional intensity that was such a characteristic of Pontormo's work
and excelled as a portraitist rather than a religious painter. He was court
painter to Duke Cosimo I de Medici for most of his career, and his work
influenced the course of European court portraiture for a century. Cold,
cultured, and unemotionally analytical, his portraits convey a sense of
almost insolent assurance.
Bronzino was also a poet, and his most personal portraits are perhaps
those of other literary figures (Laura Battiferri, Palazzo Vecchio,
Florence, c.1560). He was less successful as a religious painter, his lack
of real feeling leading to empty, elegant posturing, as in The Martyrdom
of S. Lorenzo (S. Lorenzo, Florence, 1569), in which almost every one
of the extraordinarily contorted poses can be traced back to Raphael
or to Michelangelo, whom Bronzino idolized.
It is the type of work that got Mannerism a bad name. Bronzino's skill
with the nude was better deployed in the celebrated Venus, Cupid, Folly,
and Time (National Gallery, London), which conveys strong feelings
or eroticism under the pretext of a moralizing allegory. His other major
works include the design of a series of tapestries on The Story of Joseph
for the Palazzo Vecchio.
He was a much respected figure who took a prominent part in the activities
of the Accademia del Disegno, of which he was a founder member in 1563.
His pupils included Alessandro Allori, who in a curious mirroring of his
own early career was also his adopted son.
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