Bronzino and the Mannerist Portrait

Bronzino Portrait of a Young Man, oil on panel, 1530s (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Bronzino, Lodovico Capponi, Oil on panel, 1550-55 (Frick Collection) Speakers: David Drogin and Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.

[@Raky2427]

It’s amazing how long you’ve been these videos. Never stop. 😁

[@smarthistory-art-history]

240px! That may one of the oldest videos we still have up. Thanks for your kind words.

[@sutherland9]

I enjoyed your video very much. Every time I go to NYC I visit this Bronzino portrait at the Met. At 5:34 you say "Your identity was something to be performed; You presented yourself to be seen in a certain way". This made me think of celebrities of our own time who fabricate a certain 'persona' which prevents the fans from knowing the true person beneath the surface.

[@pennyjoseph516]

This was great, thank you so much!!!

[@rustyw5842]

With regard to the left eye directed outward, one theory of Renaissance beauty was 'strabismo di Venere'. I can't find any reference to it in English, but articles in Italian reference the Birth of Venus by Botticelli and La Giaconda (Monna Lisa) by da Vinci. Since Mannerism was an exaggeration of High Renaissance principles, perhaps Bronzino intentionally distorted the young man's eye. Or perhaps the subject did really have a outward-pointing left eye.

[@saint_gales]

I used to think the young man was cockeyed, but if you look at it closely, it's just an illusion created in our minds because of the shadow on the corner of his eye.

[@theresesink1057]

Sadly the artist presented this fine looking young man with a lazy eye. I wonder if it was truthfully that way or if it I was just placed incorrectly in the painting and makes it appear that the eye is roving to the left? The painting is beautiful and so is the young man but that one thing is very striking.

[@cz2301]

Maybe Bronzino only wanted to trick us? Earlier in the video it was said that Mannerist artists wanted to do it wrong, so as to prove they knew how to do it right. In a way, Leonardo seems to also have played such tricks in Mona Lisa's ambiguous smile and gaze, and in the confusing perspective in both of the foreground's landscapes. Also, if Mannerist portraits such as these depict masks, that was an ambiguous one. It could be a lazy eye, or Bronzino may just be misguiding our understanding of the meanings behind the painting.

[@dom.doh.adventure]

I can't see the face in his clothes that you talked about at 7:21

[@miranda9691]

Me too!

[@pejhman99]

You can see it on a higher quality photo like on Wikipedia. You need to enlarge the photo and then you see two horizontal slits that look like eyes and a vertical fold in between them representing the nose.

[@Sasha0927]

The Mannerist style is new to me, so this was great to learn about, but I'd pass every time. Way too bougie and false for me... I am reminded of why I don't use most social media. 😅