The Paper's reporter Huang Song compiled
What was Renaissance Florence like?
The surging news learned that the exhibition "Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512-1570" of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York brought the Florentine beings of the 16th century back to New York, and the exhibition centered on "Cosimo I" presented a magnificent chapter in the history of Florence, the young duke who used the language and power of art to project and establish his position in the center of European power. A total of 94 works are on display, mainly from Europe, and many of them leave the collection for the first time.
Exhibition entrance
Cosimo I de'Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574, and his strategy of governance strengthened the state and made it one of the most able rulers of Europe in the 16th century. Artistically, his achievements include the creation of the Uffizi Gallery (originally intended to house government officials, but now a world-famous art gallery), the construction of the Pitti Palace for the Medici family, and the ornate Boboli Courtyard. He is also a well-known patron of the arts, having sponsored Vasari, Pontormo, Bronzino, the designer Baldassarre Lanci, the historian Scipione Ammirato, Benedetto Varchi, and others.
Benvenuto Cellini, Bronze Bust of Cosimo, 1546-1547
The subject is revealed at the entrance of the exhibition with a bronze bust of Cosimo from Benvenuto Cellini, one of nine exhibits from the Bargello Gallery in Florence. Dynamic postures, sharp eyes, lavishly decorated armor, and varied finishes give this life-size bust a majesty of power and corsage Cosimo to the genealogy of portraits of ancient Roman emperors. In the preservation and restoration of this sculpture, its original silver eyes, a technique derived from ancient Greek bronze statues, were found to highlight the gaze of Cosimo's gaze. It is then recalled that Cosimo's bust was gilded with gold and silver, and only the mole on his right cheek reveals that he is a man, not a god, but this is inconsistent with the expression of Cosimo's portrait, which also leads to discussion.
Bronzino, Portrait of Cosimo, circa 1545, collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia
The other 6 exhibition halls display paintings and sculptures, as well as a small number of books, medals, weapons, etc. of the time, presenting the history of Florence's evolution into a Grand Duchy and Cosimo's use of art to consolidate its position.
Bronzino constructed a cold and elegant court style
In the field of painting, Bronzino (17 November 1503 – 1572.11.23) was one of the stars. According to his contemporary, the art theorist Vasari, Bronzino was an apprentice of Pontomo, whose painting style was influenced by his teachers, and for most of his career he served as a court painter of the Medici family, participating in the creation of the Academy of Painting in 1563.
Vasari, Six Poets of Tuscany, 1544
In terms of characterization, the figures of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Gido Cavalcanti dominate the depiction of Florentine literary figures, and under the influence of the Six Poets of Tuscany, Bronzino, as a painter and poet, also painted portraits of the female poet Laura Battiferri. And the two exchanged poems and had a platonic relationship. The admiration shown in the portraits painted by Bronzino for him is also reflected in his writings: "You, through your own bravery, conquered Laura (Petrarch's) and Beatrice (Dante's), perhaps you are the lover of their poems." ”
Bronzino tirelessly painted Battifiri's delicate drapery collar and satin sleeves, and seemed to feel the painter's state of being caught in it and losing himself when he was depicting. The open book in the painting shows two sonnets by Petrarch, which vaguely suggests that their relationship seems to mimic Petrarch and his beloved Laura.
Bronzino, Laura Battifiri, circa 1560
Also in the exhibition hall is a red velvet robe found in the Monastery of San Mateo in Pisa, which is thought to have been given to the convent by Cosimo's first wife, Tito letledo or her maid, and which resembles the dress worn by the Duchess during her visit to Siena in 1561. Similar clothes are immortalized in Bronzino's pen. It is reported that Bronzino's salary at that time was comparable to that of the court tailor, which shows that the Medici court believed that the dress of the current life was equally important as the demand for permanent values.
There is a sleeved petticoat, about 1560
Bronzino, The Woman and the Puppy, c. 1532-1533
Here, Bronzino created a cold and elegant style of painting for court portraiture. The unknown model in The Woman and the Puppy may be Cosimo's aunt Francesca Salviati (b. 1504), whose posture and expression suggest a blur of self-consciousness — she acts like a cold public mask that acknowledges the viewer's presence while having to remain indifferent.
Portraits of family history
Alessandro de' Medici (22 July 1510 – 6 January 1537) was the first hereditary duke of Florence, and he was considered the illegitimate son of Lorenzo II de Medici (the grandson of Lorenzo de Medici, the "Magnificent Lorenzo"). But now scholars believe that he was actually the illegitimate son of Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII), who was Lorenzo's nephew. They all belong to the Medici family, and portraits are on display.
Pontomo, Portrait of Alessandro de Medici, c. 1534-1535
Historians believe that Alessandro's mother, Simonetta da Collevecchio, was a black or Moorish maid of the Medici family, and that Alessandro's nickname "il Moro" also derived from his physical features.
Although Alessandro had a darker complexion, his African ancestry was never definitively confirmed. How does the issue of race affect the treatment of art? In Pontomo's portrait, there is a pronounced color difference between Alessandro's face and hands, although this may be due to over-repair of the lower area.
At the exhibition site, the first left is "Portrait of Alessandro de Medici"
Alessandro's portrait is displayed at the crossroads of art and politics. Juxtaposed is a portrait of his cousin Lorenzino de ' Medici, who was the killer of Alessandro, in which Lorencino looks indifferently in the direction of the victim, who claims to have killed the Duke in order to save Florence and launches an uprising, after which he fled to Venice. The Medici supporters chose Cosimo I as his successor, the first time the Medici side branch ruled Florence.
Exhibition site
The exhibition begins in 1512, the year the Medici returned to power in Florence after their expulsion in 1494. The earliest work on display dates back to 1515 and is the Metropolitan Museum's own collection, Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici, said to have come from Raphael's studio, the younger brother of Lorenzo de' Medici (Duke of Urbino), a representative of the family.
Raphael, Lorenzo de' Medici (Duke of Urbino), 1518
The time shown in the exhibition ended in 1570, the year after Cosimo was promoted from Duke of Florence to Grand Duke of Tuscany. His son and heir Francesco became Duke of Florence, and the full-body portraits painted by Alessandro Allori represent the style of the Cosimo era, with about 10 works depicting women in the exhibition reflecting the trend of Renaissance portraiture.
Bronzino, Portrait of a Girl, 1540-1541
The exhibition may have its origins or due to the fact that in 2017 the Metropolitan Museum of Art included a bust by the Florentine painter Francesco Salviati depicting the young physician Carlo Rimbotti. Salviati worked with Bronzino, but their styles were different – curators attribute this to Salviati's travels around Italy, contrasting it with Bronzino's consistent "Florentine" aesthetic.
Francisco Salviati, Portrait of Carlo Limbotti, 1548
Finally, the exhibition hall demonstrates their different approach by displaying almost equal numbers of salviati and Bronzino's works—Bronzino's infinite proximity to the court; Salviati's eventual abandonment of Cosimo's restrictions on Florence and his arrival in Rome, and finally Salviati leaves the Medici family and returns to his own artistic beginnings.
Bronzino, Portrait of a Young Man, 1530s
Note: This article is compiled from Aimé Ng's Dangerous Dukes: A Review of the Portraits of the Metropolitan Medici (Apollo, September issue), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.
Editor-in-Charge: Weihua Gu
Proofreader: Shi Gong