#agnolobronzino — Public Fediverse posts
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"Portrait of a Young Man," Agnolo Bronzino, 1530s.
Bronzino (1503-72) was one of the greats of the Italian Mannerist style, which featured exaggerated proportions, asymmetrical arrangements, and a sort of unnatural elegance.
His best-known works are his portraits and some of his allegorical or religious works, some of which scholars are still arguing about centuries later; he never made things particularly clear.
This is one of his more naturalistic works. The young man, unidentified, stands with his finger in a book; experts believe it to be a book of poetry. He seems almost annoyed, as if we're interrupting his reading. One of his eyes is out of alignment as well, an interesting little detail.
The painting tells us more about the man's status than anything else; he's obviously wealthy, and perhaps a bit full of himself. But the presence of several masklike faces here and there, including the folds of his clothes, seem to hint that his own demeanor is a mask.
Happy Portrait Monday!
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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"Portrait of a Young Man as Saint Sebastian," Agnolo Bronzino, c. 1533.
Agnolo di Cosimo (1503-1572), known as Agnolo Bronzino, or simply "Bronzino," was an Italian Mannerist painter. Mannerism was a style of art that grew from the Renaissance, and was usually marked by asymmetrical arrangements and exaggerated proportions, as well as an unnatural elegance. While High Renaissance art strove for realism, Mannerism strove for the artificial.
Bronzino lived his life in Florence and was a major portraitist, as well as doing religious and allegorical paintings (including the endlessly fascinating "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time"). Many of his portraits are fairly straightforward affairs, of richly dressed nobles with severe expressions, but he also did a number of "allegorical portraits" where his male (always male) subjects are presented nude or semi-nude as mythical or historical figures. This, along with some of his writings, has led many today to conclude Bronzino was gay.
The identity of the sitter here is unknown, but his state of undress, and his cheeky expression, make one wonder.
From the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
#Art #PortraitMonday #AgnoloBronzino #Mannerism #QueerArt #LGBTQHistory