The Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo and Her Son is a painting by the Italian artist Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Bronzino, finished ca. 1545. One of his most famous works,[1] it is housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy and is considered one of the preeminent examples of Mannerist portraiture.[2] The painting depicts Eleanor of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, sitting with her hand resting on the shoulder of one of her sons. This gesture, as well as the pomegranate motif on her dress, referred to her role as mother. Eleanor wears a heavily brocaded dress with black arabesques. In this pose, she is depicted as the ideal woman of the Renaissance.[3] The painting is the first known state-commissioned portrait to include the ruler's heir. By including the child, Cosimo wished to imply that his rule would bring stability to the duchy.[4]
The child has been variously identified as being either Eleanor's son Francesco (born 1541), Giovanni (born 1543) or Garzia (born 1547). If the subject is the latter, the portrait should be dated around 1550–53, but the date is now generally assigned to c. 1545, based on an examination of the evolution of Bronzino's style, which would suggest Giovanni.[1]
The portrait has been called "cold", reflecting the sober formality of Eleanor's native Spanish Court, without the warmth typically expected of a portrait of mother and child. Such distancing is typical of the Mannerist school's rejection of naturalism.[5] Conversely, Eleanor's gown of elaborate brocaded velvet, with its massed bouclé effects of gold weft loops in the style called riccio sopra riccio (loop over loop), is painstakingly replicated.[6] The painting is perhaps an advertisement for the Florentine silk industry, which had fallen in popularity in the first difficult years of the sixteenth century and was revived in the reign of Cosimo I. The precious golden belt, decorated with jewels and beads with a tassel, may have been made by the goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini.
^ abThomas, Joe A. (1994). "Fabric and Dress in Bronzino's Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo and Son Giovanni". Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte. 57 (2): 262–67. doi:10.2307/1482735. JSTOR 1482735.
^"Eleanor of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni". Britannica. Retrieved 21 April 2011. (subscription required)
^Teplis, Michelle (2011), "The Ideal Woman behind a Portrait", Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History, Armstrong Atlantic State University, ISSN 2163-8551, retrieved 16 December 2012
^Bilik, Shiri (Spring 2002), "Women Who Ruled", Michigan Today, University of Michigan, archived from the original on 26 July 2013, retrieved 16 December 2012
^Cite error: The named reference smarth was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Monnas (2012), p. 20
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