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"BRONZINO" (ANGIOLO ALLIORI) (1502-1572) PORTRAIT OF FRANCESCO MEDICI Panel, 34 inches by 46 inches

FULL half-length figure, standing, directed and looking to front, in black silk doublet with black braided bands over a white surcoat showing slashed sleeves, white lace cuffs, and white hose; his left arm hanging down by his side, and holding in his hand a small portfolio or purse; right hand raised, holding a medallion of which the subject is not seen; green background.

Painted about 1557-8. Collection of Marchese Riccardi, FLorence (?). Collection of Lucian Buonaparte, Prince de Canino, 1816, No. 107. Collection of Comte de Pourtales-Gorgier, Paris, 1865, No. 22. Collection of Baron Seilliere, Paris. Collection of John Edward Taylor, London, 1912, No. 14. Collection of J. H. Dunn, London. Illustrated, plate in the "Souvenirs de la Galerie, Pourales,: 1863. Illustrated, No. I in the 1905 Portfolio fo the Arundel CLub, London. Illustrated Frontispiece to the John Edward Taylor Catalogue.

Francesco de Medici, son of Cosmo I., Grand Duke of Tuscany; born 1541; created Grand Duke by the Emperor Maximilian in 1576; died 1587. A distinguished patron of the arts and sciences, and the first to discover the method of melting rock crystal; he was also the first to manufacture porcelain in imitation of the Chinese. He married first, in 1565, Johanna, daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand I; she died in 1578. He then married the beautiful Bianca Capella, daughter of a Venetian senator; she died in 1587.

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