Bronzino was born in 1503, at the height of the High Renaissance. He studied with the early Mannerist painter, Jacopo da Pontormo. During the mid-1500s he found the wealth so needed by a portrait painter in Florence. He became the darling of the Medici family. Even before that, the Medici family had a long history of support for the arts, particularly sculptors. Michelangelo grew out of their womb-like benefaction, and Leonardo himself also profited from their largess though in a backhanded sort of way. Though his genius was recognized, he was considered too undependable to work for either the church or "the family," so he was sent, somewhat as a "gift," to the Sforza family in Milan where he worked for eighteen years.
|Cosimo de'Medici, 1545-59|
|Eleanor of Toledo, 1550|
Agnolo Bronzino painted in what has come to be known as the "High Mannerist" style. His portraits of Medici family members such as Cosimo de'Medici and Eleanora di Toledo with her Son Giovanni de'Medici, painted about 1550, are coolly elegant without appearing ostentatious. Perhaps his best work may or may not be a de'Medici.
|Portrait of a Sculptor, 1535,|