File:Pontormo - Cosimo I de' Medici in Profile, 1537.jpg

(b. 1494, Pontormo, d. 1557, Firenze)

Cosimo I de' Medici in Profile 1537 Black chalk, 421 x 215 mm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

This portrait shows Cosimo I de' Medici at about eighteen years old, just after he came to power on January 9, 1537, and before he grew a beard, probably later that year. This design was transferred to a panel, now in the Galleria Palatina in Palazzo Pitti. The profile view suggests that the drawing was a study for a sculpture or coin commission. Indeed, the same view of Cosimo appears in a <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/b/bandinel/cosimo.html')" href="/html/b/bandinel/cosimo.html">marble relief</a> from the workshop of Baccio Bandinelli and in a number of <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/v/vetri/medici1.html')" href="/html/v/vetri/medici1.html">medals</a> and coins meant to diffuse the image of the young ruler.

After the <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/b/bronzino/1/cosimo.html')" href="/html/b/bronzino/1/cosimo.html">duke's official image</a> was painted by Bronzino in 1544, Pontormo no longer needed the drawing, so he used the verso to draw a group of nudes for the murals of San Lorenzo in Florence, a project that he worked on from 1545 to the end of his life.

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Author: PONTORMO, Jacopo Title: Cosimo I de' Medici in Profile Time-line: 1501-1550 School: Italian Form: graphics