- Bronzino, Il
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orig. Agnolo di Cosimoborn Nov. 17, 1503, Monticelli, duchy of Milandied Nov. 23, 1572, FlorenceItalian painter active in Florence.He was the student and adopted son of Jacopo da Pontormo. He excelled as a portraitist and was court painter to Cosimo I for most of his career. His portraits were emotionally inexpressive, but in their elegance and decorative qualities they embodied the courtly ideal under the Medici dukes. His work influenced European court portraiture for the next century, while his polished, sophisticated religious and mythological paintings epitomized the Mannerist style of his time (see Mannerism). In 1563 he became a founding member of the Accademia del Disegno.
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▪ Italian painter and poetoriginal name Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano Tori , Agnolo also spelled Agnioloborn Nov. 17, 1503, Florencedied Nov. 23, 1572, FlorenceFlorentine painter whose polished and elegant portraits are outstanding examples of the Mannerist style. These works are classic embodiments of the courtly ideal under the Medici dukes of the mid-16th century; they influenced European court portraiture for the next century.Particularly in his early work, Bronzino was greatly influenced by the work of his teacher, the Florentine painter Jacopo da Pontormo (Pontormo, Jacopo da). Bronzino adapted his master's eccentric, expressive style (early Mannerism) to create a brilliant, precisely linear style of his own that was also partly influenced by Michelangelo and the late works of Raphael. Bronzino served as the court painter to Cosimo I, duke of Florence, from 1539 until his death. His portraits, such as Eleanor of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni, are preeminent examples of Mannerist portraiture: emotionally inexpressive, reserved, and noncommittal, yet arrestingly elegant and decorative. Bronzino's great technical proficiency and his stylized rounding of sinuous anatomical forms are also notable. He also painted sacred and allegorical works of distinction, such as The Allegory of Luxury, or Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time (c. 1544–45), which reveals his love of complex symbolism, contrived poses, and clear, brilliant colours.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
