Francesco de’ Medici

Made before the young prince reached the Signoria, this portrait presents the future grand duke Francesco de’ Medici as the heir of a dynasty at the height of its ambition, somewhere about 1560. The sober, stiffened silhouette and the depthless black of the doublet throw the pale face into relief — the face that would emerge in history as the recluse of the Studiolo, patron of the Buontalenti grotto and the scientific prince who trusted the airy fictions of Bronzino’s pupil Alessandro Allori. The picture stands in the stern verisimilitude of the Florentine Mannerist court portrait, a school that prized considered control over grace, and it was given to the Art Institute in 1965. The painting is held in the Art Institute of Chicago.