Ritratto di Isabella de’ Medici (late 17th century)

Copy after Bronzino (1503-1572)

Ritratto di Isabella de’ Medici (Portrait of Isabella de Medici)
late 17th century
Oil on limewood panel, 61 x 45.4 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) was born in Florence and first trained under Raffaellino del Garbo (ca.1466-1524) and then with Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1557) who largely influenced his art. As court painter to Cosimo I de’ Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, Bronzino produced a number of portraits as well as religious and mythological works. Bronzino also worked on decorative schemes and executed a number of works now lost, damaged or destroyed such as lunettes and the allegorical fresco decorations in the many Medici’s villas and palace in and out Florence.

This painting is a copy after the famous portrait of Isabella de’ Medici by Agnolo Bronzino, in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. She is represented in a lavish black and white satin dress, wearing a pearl neck while a very fine almost transparent veil hold by a head brooch covers her hair. The whole figure is set against a dark neutral background that enhanced by contrast her extreme pallor and the delicate modelling of her face, typical characteristics of Bronzino‘s art. (V&A)

See also:

Post navigation