Eleonora of Toledo and her son Giovanni
|
| Eleonora of Toledo and her son Giovanni |
|---|
| Agnolo Bronzino , 1545 |
| oil on wood |
| 115 × 96 cm |
| Uffizi Gallery |
The painting Eleonora of Toledo and her son Giovanni is one of the famous Medici portraits by the Italian painter Agnolo Bronzino and is one of the most important examples of portraiture. It was created in Florence around 1545.
content
The double portrait shows the wife of the Tuscan Duke Cosimo I de 'Medici , Eleonora of Toledo , and their son Giovanni. Bronzino painted Eleonora twice in the company of a son, while there is no double portrait with a daughter. The other double portrait shows her with her first-born Francesco, but only the workshop version of the picture in Pisa has survived. The depiction of the two male Medici heirs in representative state portraits demonstrated that the continued existence of the dynasty was assured.
Eleonora of Toledo
Eleonora of Toledo, daughter of the Spanish viceroy of Naples, was married to the nineteen-year-old Duke Cosimo in 1539 at the age of seventeen. The couple had nine children, most of whom died in childhood or adolescence.
Bronzino painted Eleonora of Toledo several times. Three portraits are consistently recognized as handwritten by art scholars, apart from this double portrait also the two single pictures in Prague (from 1543) and Berlin (made between 1555 and 1560), while the other pictures are replicas and student copies from Bronzino's workshop. Copying the state portraits was a common practice at the time, as the pictures were occasionally given away for diplomatic purposes.
Giovanni de 'Medici
Giovanni de 'Medici (1543–1562) was the second son of Eleanoras. He was baptized in the name of his famous uncle Giovanni de 'Medici, a son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. As Pope, he had the name of Leo X accepted. Giovanni, too, was destined for the church career and evidently embodied the father's hope for a career that was as brilliant for his younger son as that of his brother. When Giovanni died at the age of 19, he was already Bishop of Pisa and Cardinal.
There are other portraits by Bronzino of Giovanni , namely Giovanni with the goldfinch , Giovanni (with book and black suit) from 1550/51 in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and finally the allegorical portrait of Giovanni as John the Baptist from 1560/61 in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, in which some interpreters think they recognize a portrait of Giovanni.
description
The picture is a three-quarter portrait. Eleonora is shown seated, her body facing to the left, but she is looking at the viewer. Her left arm rests on the skirt of her heavy dress, with her right arm she clasps the shoulder of her three-year-old son, who is dreaming with an absent gaze. Giovanni wears an unadorned children's dress made of dark blue and gold iridescent silk fabric, from which the collar embroidered with gold threads and the pleated cuffs of the undergarment peek out.
In contrast to this, the mother is dressed most splendidly in brocade and pearl jewelry , which are shown to advantage against the intense blue lapis lazuli background. The blue of the background becomes increasingly lighter around Eleanora's head, so that she appears to be surrounded by a nimbus that additionally ennobles her elegant appearance . The dark hair, parted in the middle, is held together by a net studded with pearls. She wears teardrop-shaped pearls in her ears.
The dress made of white-ground silk fabric with velvet arabesques and a striking pomegranate pattern made of gold brocade has a tight top. The stiff slit sleeves conspicuously emphasize the shoulder area. The straight neckline of the dress is largely covered by a network of brocade cords and pearls, similar to Eleanora's hairnet. Around her waist she wears a heavy gold chain, at the end of which hangs a tassel with tightly threaded pearls. Eleonora wears two pearl necklaces, the large one reaching to the middle of the breast, the narrow necklace has a pendant made of a large cut topaz and a teardrop-shaped pearl. The fabric was woven according to Spanish models, but in the Medici factories in Florence. The performance of the local textile industry is also effectively staged in the picture.
Eleonora's face is perfect evenness, as flawless as the email smooth flesh tones . No body shapes can be seen under the stiff dress, just like the oval of the face, the upper body approximates geometric shapes. According to the preferences of mannerist painting, the body proportions are elongated. Obviously, no detailed portrait accuracy was desired, but rather the presentation of an ideal image.
The picture as a state portrait
For all the costly jewelry and clothing, in which the royal splendor of the brocade is muted by the cool colors black, white and golden brown, Eleonora exudes reserve, dignity and the sure certainty of the rank and importance of the Medici family.
The generous use of lapis lazuli , the most expensive painting material of all, the almost still-life presentation of a precious piece of clothing with the central eye-catcher of a pomegranate, the ancient symbol of abundance of life and fertility, and finally the presence of a boy in the picture are hidden clues to wealth and the economic efficiency of the Medici and their secure rule in Florence.
The fact that Cosimo had to secure his rule again and again during his entire reign and that the economic situation was anything but rosy because of the war costs and the duke's cultural ambitions is another matter.
Eleonora at the age of 23, 1543, Prague, National Gallery
Eleonora at the age of 40, 1560, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
Bronzino: Giovanni de 'Medici, 1545, Florence, Uffizi
Giovanni de 'Medici as John the Baptist, Rome, Galleria Borghese
reception
In 1991 Patrick Raynaud took Bronzinos painting as the starting material for an installation in the Langer Fain gallery in Paris:
- Patrick Raynaud: Bronzinos Postcards: Portrait of a Woman, 1991. Postcard stand, Cibachrome under Plexiglas. Guendet Collection, Paris.
literature
- Karla Langedijk: The Portraits of the Medici. 15th - 18th Centuries. 3 volumes. Studio per Edizioni Scelte, Florence 1981–1987.
- Joe A. Thomas: Fabric and Dress in Bronzino's Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo and Son Giovanni. In: Journal for Art History . Vol. 57, H. 2, 1994, pp. 262-267, doi : 10.2307 / 1482735 .
- Leonie von Wilckens: Again: Bronzinos dress of Eleonora of Toledo. In: Journal for Art History. Vol. 58, H. 2, 1995, p. 262, doi : 10.2307 / 1482705 .
