The exhibition in the Strozzi Palace in Florence is the very first to be devoted to the work of Agnolo di Cosimo known as Bronzino (1503−1572), a sophisticated court painter in the years in which Cosimo I de’ Medici was in power and one of the greatest artists in the history of Italian painting. The exhibition, with loans from some of the leading museums of the world, offers visitors the chance to admire over 70 paintings by the artist himself, alongside work by Pontormo, Cellini, Tribolo, Baccio Bandinelli, Pierino da Vinci and Alessandro Allori. The decision to exhibit only works of the highest quality gives a broad audience the chance to admire and to explore the dizzying poetic heights achieved by the painter, thanks to direct comparison with the work of other artists set alongside Bronzino’s artistic output for the very first time. For sure, however, he painted everything the Council of Trent (1543-1565) had forbidden. The picture of Eleanora was a clean portrait.
