Bronzino: Medici Court Painter and Poet at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, by Daniel B. Gallagher
- Venus, Cupid and Satyr (1553-1555), Agnolo di Cosimo named Bronzino (Monticelli, Florence 1503 - Florence 1572) 4 Oil on panel 135x231 cm Rome, Galleria Colonna, Inv. Salviati
Complementing the drawings shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last year is this exhibition at the Strozzi Palace featuring fifty-four of Bronzino’s seventy paintings: the largest exhibition of the Florentine master’s work to date. The son of a butcher, Agnolo di Cosimo Tori (1503-1572), nicknamed “Bronzino”, spent the bulk of his career in the Medici court until Giorgio Vasari succeeded him in 1564. Vasari in fact plays a large role in this show, as curators Cristina Acidini, Carlo Falciani, and Antonio Natali rely heavily on information contained in his biography of Bronzino. The pictures themselves tell much of the story, demonstrating that the artist is not readily classifiable as a Mannerist given his tendency towards natural, austere beauty in affectedly bright colors.

