Portrait of Alessandro de' Medici
Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci), Italian (active Florence), 1494 - 1556/7
Geography:
Made in Florence, Italy, Europe
Date:
1534-1535Medium:
Oil on panelDimensions:
39 7/8 x 32 1/4inches (101.3 x 81.9cm)Curatorial Department:
European PaintingObject Location:
Cat. 83Credit Line:
John G. Johnson Collection, 1917
Made in Florence, Italy, Europe
Date:
1534-1535Medium:
Oil on panelDimensions:
39 7/8 x 32 1/4inches (101.3 x 81.9cm)Curatorial Department:
European PaintingObject Location:
Currently not on view
Accession Number:Cat. 83Credit Line:
John G. Johnson Collection, 1917
Label:
Alessandro de’ Medici (born c. 1511), duke of Florence from 1530 until his assassination in 1537, is shown not as a powerful ruler, but in a private chamber making a drawing of a woman in metalpoint. At the time, drawing was considered an acceptable activity for a gentleman, but here the reference may be to love poetry. The fourteenth-century poet Petrarch, who enjoyed a revival in readership in the early sixteenth century, wrote sonnets about a metalpoint drawing he owned of his beloved Laura.
Alessandro de’ Medici (born c. 1511), duke of Florence from 1530 until his assassination in 1537, is shown not as a powerful ruler, but in a private chamber making a drawing of a woman in metalpoint. At the time, drawing was considered an acceptable activity for a gentleman, but here the reference may be to love poetry. The fourteenth-century poet Petrarch, who enjoyed a revival in readership in the early sixteenth century, wrote sonnets about a metalpoint drawing he owned of his beloved Laura.
