A set of portraits of the Florentine grand duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574) and of his wife Eleonora di Toledo (1522–1562) painted by two major representatives of Florentine Mannerism (Italian Late Renaissance), Pontormo and Bronzino was compared with the skulls of the two subjects utilizing the forensic technique of craniofacial superimposition. The results show that, in the case of Cosimo I, both a painting (Pontormo, workshop of, Cosimo I de’ Medici, 1537) and a drawing (Pontormo, Cosimo I de’ Medici in Profile, 1537) show lack of fit with the skull in four points (the glabellar outline, the depth of the nasal bridge, the bony lateral wall of the orbit, and the outline of the frontal process of the zygomatic bone). The drawing, therefore, seems to contradict the well established idea that Renaissance painters prepared lifelike sketches of their sitters which were then modified when transferred to the painting. In the case of Eleonora di Toledo, on the other hand, craniofacial superimposition analysis reveals that Bronzino, possibly as the result of a desperate search for the “best angle” of the sitter, adopted an unusual perspective to portray the duchess (Bronzino, Eleonora di Toledo, c. 1539) possibly looking down the sitter, by standing, while the sitter was seated in front of him. The face of the sitter was subsequently, in another painting (Bronzino, Eleonora di Toledo and Her Son Giovanni, c. 1544-45) “transplanted” onto the rest of the body given the impression that the duchess “looks” at the viewer from above. © 2016 Romanian Society of Legal Medicine.

Craniofacial superimposition studies on a set of cosimo i de’ medici’s (1519-1574) and eleonora di toledo’s (1522-1562) portraits

MAROTA, Isolina;OLIVIERI, CRISTINA;LUCIANI, Stefania
2016-01-01

Abstract

A set of portraits of the Florentine grand duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574) and of his wife Eleonora di Toledo (1522–1562) painted by two major representatives of Florentine Mannerism (Italian Late Renaissance), Pontormo and Bronzino was compared with the skulls of the two subjects utilizing the forensic technique of craniofacial superimposition. The results show that, in the case of Cosimo I, both a painting (Pontormo, workshop of, Cosimo I de’ Medici, 1537) and a drawing (Pontormo, Cosimo I de’ Medici in Profile, 1537) show lack of fit with the skull in four points (the glabellar outline, the depth of the nasal bridge, the bony lateral wall of the orbit, and the outline of the frontal process of the zygomatic bone). The drawing, therefore, seems to contradict the well established idea that Renaissance painters prepared lifelike sketches of their sitters which were then modified when transferred to the painting. In the case of Eleonora di Toledo, on the other hand, craniofacial superimposition analysis reveals that Bronzino, possibly as the result of a desperate search for the “best angle” of the sitter, adopted an unusual perspective to portray the duchess (Bronzino, Eleonora di Toledo, c. 1539) possibly looking down the sitter, by standing, while the sitter was seated in front of him. The face of the sitter was subsequently, in another painting (Bronzino, Eleonora di Toledo and Her Son Giovanni, c. 1544-45) “transplanted” onto the rest of the body given the impression that the duchess “looks” at the viewer from above. © 2016 Romanian Society of Legal Medicine.
2016
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
luciani.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Versione Editoriale
Licenza: DRM non definito
Dimensione 538.34 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
538.34 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11581/390704
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
social impact