Agnolo Bronzino

Tori, Agnolo

Florentine, 1503 - 1572

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Italian Mannerist painter (1503-1572)

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Shown from the hips up, a pale-skinned woman with a long, narrow face wears a richly decorated crimson-red dress in this vertical portrait painting. Her body angles to our left, and she looks in that direction with hooded brown eyes. She has a long nose, a pointed chin, and her pink lips are closed. Deep indentations at her temples and the hollows of her cheeks are shadowed. Her brown hair is parted down the middle and held back in a gold net. Large pearls hang from her ears, and a long strand of pearls doubled around her neck look white at her collar and gray down by her waist. The bodice of her dress is patterned with marigold orange and wine red, and translucent white lace covers her chest and flares up the sides of her neck. A heavy outer garment has black stripes decorated with gold leafy designs alternating with ruby-red stripes. The seams are studded with pearls down the front and along the split sleeves. A gray cuff lines the wrist of a bare, long-fingered hand, which rests across the other forearm. She wears a leather-brown glove on the other hand and clutches a white cloth in that fist. She sits on a pine-green cushion, and an apple-red curtain falls in gentle folds across the background.
Agnolo Bronzino, Eleonora di Toledo, c. 1560, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.7

Eleonora di Toledo

Agnolo Bronzino · c. 1560 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.7

Agnolo Bronzino, Giulio Clovio, The Fall of Phaethon, 1555/1559, black chalk on laid paper, Woodner Collection, 1998.17.10

The Fall of Phaethon

Agnolo Bronzino, Giulio Clovio · 1555/1559 · black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1998.17.10

A woman wearing a crimson-red brocade dress and gold jewelry fills most of this vertical portrait, but her right hand, on our left, rests on the shoulder of a young boy tucked into the lower left corner of the panel. The woman and boy both have pale, white skin, and both face and look out at us against an emerald-green curtain that falls behind them. The woman has brown eyes, a straight nose, full pink lips, smooth cheeks, and a long neck. Her brown hair is pulled back under a turban densely embroidered with gold. The woman’s dress has puffed shoulders and decorative slashes on the sleeves. One gold chain rests on her throat and the other falls over her chest. She wears long gold earrings, a gold belt, and two gold rings. She holds a brown leather glove in her left hand. The boy’s face is even with the woman’s waist, and he raises his left hand to hold hers, which is draped over his shoulder. He has curly blond hair and dark eyes, and he wears black with a ruffled white shirt just visible at his collar.
Agnolo Bronzino, A Young Woman and Her Little Boy, c. 1540, oil on panel, Widener Collection, 1942.9.6

A Young Woman and Her Little Boy

Agnolo Bronzino · c. 1540 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.6

Two women, a man, and two pudgy children create a close-knit group against a dark brown background in this vertical painting. The people all have pale skin with rosy cheeks, blond or copper-colored hair, and delicate gold rings as halos. One child, Jesus, sits on a stone surface at the center of the composition. He leans onto one hip so his feet rest off to our left. His right arm reaches across his chest as he holds up the first two fingers of that hand. He turns his head back to our left to look up at Mary, who stands behind him to our left as she bends down close to the child. She tips her head to our left, and she looks down and off in that direction with brown eyes. A spring-green cloth loops around a white headdress and drapes around her neck. She wears a teal-blue robe over a cranberry-pink dress. In front of her and to our left, Saint Anne, leans toward Jesus from next to the stone. Saint Anne’s skin is notably pale, and wrinkles line her eyes and lips, which are parted. Her face tips up as she gazes heavenward with deep-set eyes. A white cloth drapes over her head and around her shoulders over a lilac-purple garment. She holds a broken staff like walking stick with the hand we see in the lower left corner of the painting. In the lower right and in front of the stone, the second child, Saint John the Baptist, looks at us with wide-set, serious eyes as he points up to Jesus. Saint John has brown curls and pudgy cheeks. A fawn-brown cloth drapes over his far shoulder. Finally, a young man with a wispy beard stands back-to-back with Mary so he fills the upper right corner of the composition. He turns his head to look down over his right shoulder. A gray-blue cloth wraps around his head, and he also holds a broken staff.
Agnolo Bronzino, The Holy Family, c. 1527/1528, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.387

The Holy Family

Agnolo Bronzino · c. 1527/1528 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.387