Works by Bronzino

Bronzino, the Medici court's painter in Florence under Duke Cosimo I, made calm, elegant portraits in which silk, lace and pearls are painted as sharply as the faces.

According to Vasari, Bronzino was apprenticed at 14 to Pontormo, and he took much of his teacher's manner, but his slightly elongated, elegant figures stay composed where Pontormo's are agitated. Portrait of a Young Man, from the 1530s, shows a youth in a black slashed doublet with one hand on his hip and a finger keeping his place in a book; the table and chair beside him are carved with grotesque heads.

When Cosimo I married Eleonora di Toledo in 1539, Bronzino was one of many artists who decorated for the festivities, and he was the duke's court painter for most of his career. Eleonora of Toledo, from about 1543, sets the duchess against flat blue in a pink and gold gown, a net of pearls over her shoulders and more pearls in her hair. Cosimo sent copies of family portraits as diplomatic gifts, so many exist in several versions, with more or less of Bronzino's own hand. Lodovico Capponi, of 1550–55, stands before a green curtain in black silk with one white sleeve, a hand raised to his chest.

Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, of about 1545, is probably his best-known picture. Pale, smooth bodies crowd a deep blue cloth: Cupid kisses Venus, a grinning child lifts a handful of roses, and bald, bearded Time grips the edge of the cloth above. Most works below are portraits, the rest religious or mythological scenes; many date from the 1540s.

Sources: Wikipedia, National Gallery Prague, The Frick Collection, National Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.