Portrait of a Young Man by Bronzino in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2019

Portrait of a Young Man
1530s


Object Details

Artist: Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano) (Italian, Monticelli 1503–1572 Florence)

Date: 1530s

Medium: Oil on wood

Dimensions: 37 5/8 x 29 1/2 in. (95.6 x 74.9 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Accession Number: 29.100.16


The identity of this arrogant young man is unknown, but he must have belonged to Bronzino’s close circle of literary friends in Florence and probably holds a book of poetry. The artist was himself a poet, delighting as much in the beauty of language as he did in the witty and fanciful details of his paintings. Here, viewers would have appreciated the carved grotesque heads on the table and chair, and the almost hidden, masklike face suggested in the folds of the youth’s breeches as comments on masks and disguises. They contrast with the youth’s own handsome looks.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435802