Portrait of a Young Man

Artist Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano, called Bronzino (Italian, 1503 - 1572)

Date1550/1555

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsUnframed: 33 3/4 x 27 inches (85.73 x 68.58 cm)
Framed: 46 1/8 x 39 5/8 x 2 3/4 inches (117.17 x 100.66 x 6.99 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number49-28

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionA half-length portrait of a dark-haired, bearded young man attired in a richly brocaded blackish purple coat, a white embroidered collar, a black cape, and a black velvet hat with a whitish gray feather. He is depicted full face against a plain gray background; his eyes look slightly to the right. His left arm crosses in front of his body, and both hands rest on the golden hilt of a sword, visible at lower left.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exposition de tableaux anciens provenant de collections particulieres, M. Knoedler and Co., Paris, April 23- May 24, 1913, no. 27.

An Exhibition of Paintings and Prints of Every Description on the Occasion of Knoedler: One Hundred Years, 1846- 1946, M. Knoedler and Co., Paris, April 1-27, 1946, no. 14.

Thirteen Paintings from the 15th Century to the Present Time, Crandall Public Library, Glens Falls, New York, August 31-September 30, 1946, no. 2

21 Great Paintings, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, July 20-August 30, 1947, no. 17.

Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art, Denver Art Museum, December 17, 1947- January 10, 1948, no. 13.

Condition Excellent, Worchester Art Museum, March 22-April 22, 1951, no. 6.

Pontormo to Greco: The Age of Mannerism, The John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, February 14-March 28, 1954, no. 16.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, January-July 15, 1991 (no catalogue).

The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 21–October 11, 2021.

Gallery Label

Bronzino was the official portraitist to the court of the autocratic Medici family in mid-16th-century Florence. The controlled atmosphere of court life is reflected in the slightly aloof detachment of this portrait of an unknown sitter. On the other hand, a sense of immediacy is conveyed by the sitter's partly open lips, as if he were about to speak. Bronzino's treatment of the young man's fingers reflects the Mannerist taste for exaggerated elegance and elongated proportions, while the enameled finish of the flesh tones is typical of Mannerist polished virtuosity.

Provenance

Mozzi collection, Palazzo Mozzi, Florence, by 1841-at least 1855 [1];

With Sir George Donaldson (1845-1925), London [2];

John Edward Taylor (1830-1905), London, by 1905;

Inherited by his wife, Martha Elizabeth Taylor (d. 1912), 1905-1912;

Purchased at her posthumous sale, The Highly Important Collection of Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R.A., Works by Old Masters and Modern Pictures & Drawings formed by the late John Edward Taylor, Esq., Christie, Manson and Woods, London, July 5, 1912, lot 15, by Knoedler and Co., New York, stock book 3, no. 5387, stock book 6, no. 12912, 1912-August 1913;

Purchased from Knoedler by George Eastman (1854-1932), Rochester, New York, August 1913-February 1914;

Returned by Eastman to Knoedler and Co., New York, stock book 6, no. 13424, on joint account with P. and D. Colnaghi and Obach, London, February 1914-April 1918;

Purchased from Knoedler and Colnaghi by Morton F. Plant (1852-1918), New York, April 1918-November 1918;

Inherited by his wife, Mae Caldwell Manfaring Plant Hayward (d. 1956), New York, November 1918-March 23, 1944 [3];

Purchased from Hayward by Knoedler and Co., New York, stock book 9, stock nos. A2782 and CA2118, March 23, 1944-March 1, 1949;

Purchased from Knoedler by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1949.

NOTES:

[1] Charles L. Eastlake, “Diary,” early October 1855, fol. 20v, National Gallery, London. Photocopy in the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Ellis K. Waterhouse notebooks and research files, 1801-1987, box 30.

[2] Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Knoedler Gallery Archive, box 2072, folder 12, Photos: Bronzino.

[3] Mae Caldwell Manfaring Plant remarried on June 21, 1919; her second husband was Commodore William Hayward. She consigned the painting under her new married name to Knoedler and Co., New York, commission book 2, no. C5321, January 1921-April 1925. The painting failed to sell and was returned to her.

Published References

Emanuele Repetti, Notizie e guida di Firenze e de’ suoi contorni, 2^nd ed. (Florence: G Piatti, 1841), 428.

Federigo Fantozzi, Nuova guida, ovvero descrizione storica-artistico-critica della città e contorni di Firenze (Florence: Presso Giuseppe Ducci, 1847), 600.

Giuseppe François, Nuova guida della città di Firenze: ossia descrizione di tutte le cose che vi si trovano degne d'osservazione con pianta e vedute (Florence: Presso Giorgio Steininger, 1853), 549.

Charles L. Eastlake, “Diary,” fol. 20v, undated entry (but probably October 7, 1855), National Gallery, London.

Catalogue of the Highly Important Collection of Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Works by Old Masters and Modern Pictures and Drawings, Formed by the Late John Edward Taylor, Esq. (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, July 5, 1912, and July 8, 1912), 7.

James Thomas Herbert Baily, “The Taylor Collection,” Connoisseur 34 (September–December, 1912): 35, (repro.).

Catalogue de Exposition de tableaux anciens provenant de collections particulieres, exh. cat. (Paris: M. Knoedler & Co., April 23–May 24, 1913), 15, (repro.).

Henry Currie Marillier, “Christie’s,” 1766 to 1925 (London: Constable, 1926), 141.

Thirteen Paintings from the 15^th Century to the Present Time, exh. cat. (Glen Falls: Crandall Public Library, 1946), unpaginated, (repro.).

An Exhibition of Paintings and Prints of Every Description on the Occasion of Knoedler: One Hundred Years, 1846-1946, exh. cat. (New York: M. Knoedler & Co, 1946), 5, (repro.).

Leonie Knoedler Sterner, “Knoedler Centenary: Selling Art Since 1846 to an Expanding Country,” Art News 45 (April, 1946): 20–21, (repro.).

L.R., “Honderdjarig Bestaan van M. Knoedler & Co.,” Phoenix: Maandschrift voor Beeldende Kunst 1, no. 8 (1946), 24-25, (repro.).

21 Great Paintings, exh. cat. (Colorado Springs: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1947), unpaginated, (repro.).

Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art, exh. cat. (Denver: The Denver Art Museum, 1947), 10, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 42, (repro.).

“Masterpiece of the Month,” Gallery News (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts), (May, 1950): unpaginated, (repro.).

George L. Stout, “Condition: Excellent,” Art News 50 (March 1951): 26, (repro.).

Condition Excellent, exh. cat. (Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum, 1951), unpaginated, (repro.).

Pontormo to Greco: The Age of Mannerism, exh. cat. (Indianapolis: The John Herron Art Museum, 1954), (repro.).

Herbert Keutner, “Zu einigen Bildnissen des frühen Florentiner Manierismus,” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 8 (1957-59): 152n8.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 65, (repro.).

Andrea Emiliani, Bronzino (Busto Arsizio: Bromante, 1960), unpaginated, (repro.).

Gerald Reitlinger, The Economics of Taste: The Rise and Fall of the Picture Market, 1760-1960 (New York: Barrie and Rockliff, 1961), 263.

Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School, vol.1 (London and New York: Phaidon Press, 1963), 43.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), 36, 525, 589.

Edi Baccheschi, Catalogue de L’opera completa del Bronzino (Milan: Rizzoli, 1973), no. 99, p. 101, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, 5^th ed., vol. 1 (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 90, (repro.).

Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, “Angolo Bronzino: Portrait of a Young Lady,” Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art 61 (January 1974): 11.

Charles McCorquodale, Bronzino (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), 125, (repro.).

Robert Barry Simon, Bronzino’s Portraits of Cosimo de’ Medici (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1982), 182n2.

Phillippe Costamagna, “Osservazioni sull’attività giovanile di alessandro Allori- Seconda parte- Les portraits,” Antichita Viva 27, no. 1 (January-February 1988): 24n11.

An Important Painting by Pontormo from the Collection of Chauncey D. Stillman (New York: Christie’s, May 31, 1989), 37n58.

“Unknown Bronzino portrait emerges from Victorian drawings at £110,000,” [unknown newspaper] (c. July 1989), clipping, NAMA curatorial files.

Old Master Drawings (London: Sotheby’s, July 3, 1989), 10.

P. Jeromack, “Reviews: Old Master Drawings,” Art & Auction 12, no. 3 (October 1989): 240.

Sotheby’s: Art at Auction 1988-89 (London: Sotheby’s, 1989), 51, (repro.).

L. Berti, “L’Alabardiere’ del Pontormo,” Critica d’Arte 55, no. 1 (1990): 46, (repro.).

R. Ward and S. Heffley, “Restoration Reveals Full Beauty of Painting,” The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Calendar of Events (September 1991): 1-2, (repro.).

Janet Majure, “The Curious Case of the Crimson Tunic,” Kansas City Star (September 8, 1991): K1, K10, (repro.).

Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art, 1933–1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 63-66, 114, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 30, 129, 153, (repro.).

Eliot W. Rowlands, Italian Paintings, 1300-1800: The Collections of the Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 179–188, (repro.).

Maurice Brock, Bronzino, trans. David Poole Radzinowicz and Christine Schultz=Touge (Paris, Flammarion, 2002), 142, 144-145, 147, (repro.).

Keith Christiansen and Carlo Falciani, eds., The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.