Art Gallery

Bronzino, Agnolo (1503 - 1572), was born in Monticelli near Florence in 1503, and trained with Pontormo, whose Mannerist style he took on, lengthening and sometimes rounding off the shapes to give a harmonious effect to the composition, using also the chiaroscuro technique for the same purpose. He painted some magnificent portraits: the famous "Guidobaldo d'Urbino" is at the Pitti Gallery, while at the Uffizi are the equally famous "Eleanor of Toledo with her son Giovanni"; the young "Giovanni de' Medici" holding a bird; "Isabella de'Medici" who seems like a jewel set on a varying blue background; "Bartolomeo" and "Lucrezia Panciatachi" wearing fine clothes and portrayed in proud and aristocratic poses; also the "Unknown man with lute", "Bia de' Medici" and "Cosimo I", just to mention a few.

In the Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino Room are some of his paintings on sacred themes, like the "Holy Family with St. Giovannino", which has a certain dreamy feel and grace thanks to the poses and the colors used, also here is the "Mourning of Christ". On a mythological theme is "Pygmalion and Galatea" (as well as the "Allegory of Happiness" in the sixteenth century corridor). Bronzino also did sketches for tapestries and frescos, including the "Biblical Scenes" at the Palazzo Vecchio, but he also used mythological themes, as in the "Allegory" at London's National Gallery, a splendid picture of a nymph or goddess surrounded by putti and the openly angry tetra Calumny. The main recurrent aspect of the work of this artist, who died in 1572, is the soft light which illuminates his figures, especially lighting up their faces and figures, which seem modeled like statues or precious stones.