It’s very difficult to find beauty among the chaos of trade fairs, fashion weeks and catwalk shows.
Yet, last week, while running here and there during the Pitti trade show, I was lucky enough to find some time to immerse myself in beauty at the Bronzino exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi.
The exhibition – entitled “Bronzino: Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici” and featuring over ninety works of art from the Uffizi Gallery and on loan from leading collections all over the world – is on until tomorrow and I would definitely urge you to go and see it if you love art/if you are a fashion designer and happen to be in Florence this weekend.
If you’re not in Italy at the moment, but you are a fashion design student, go to your nearest library and try to learn as much as you can about this extraordinary painter.
I often did lectures about art and fashion that moved from Renaissance painters, looking at them like the first chroniclers of fashion, and the work of Agnolo di Cosimo, better known as “Bronzino”, always offered me some wonderful examples.
This is actually the very first exhibition organised in the city of Florence entirely dedicated to Bronzino (1503-1572), who held the post of court artist and portrait painter to the Medici family, so it’s definitely an event that should't be missed.
Bronzino’s works are known for their beauty, aristocratic splendour and sophisticated style, and many fashion designers would find interesting the brilliant hues of the garments worn by the painters' sitters, the fabrics employed to make them and the secrets behind them.
Take for example the painting that portrays Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de' Medici, sitting with her hand resting on the shoulder of one of her sons.
Eleonora looked like a very elegant icon of power in this portrait, yet she never owned the elaborate dress with a thick cord that caused the sleeves to ruche and belt ending in a sumptuous tassel she wore in this painting.
Some historians thought that she had actually been buried in that same dress, but newer researches proved it was another gown, currently preserved at Florence’s Pitti Palace (Costume Gallery section; check it out also in the book Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold).
According to the historians who studied the descriptions of Eleonora’s wardrobe, she owned many velvet and steel corsets, feathery headpieces, dresses in men’s styles and quite a few wraps in luxurious fabrics and swan feathers that she wore to keep her stomach warm.
To paint this portrait Bronzino was actually given a sample of brocade fabric (made in Florence) characterised by a pomegranate motif that referred to Eleonora's role as mother.
Silver and gold brocades were very expensive and an ample and voluminous dress like the one worn by Eleonora in this painting would have been extremely expensive.
Fabric took centre stage in the Renaissance and was considered as more important than tailors and style.
Even in Bronzino’s first works, such as the portraits of the Evangelists (works that revealed strong ties with Pontormo, his master), the young painter showed great attention to the use of fabric that draped around the body of his subjects and often studied the effects that the changing light produced on the fabric.
The use of the chiaroscuro and of brilliant and contrasting colours such as violet, red and green, became indeed Bronzino’s trademarks.
Bronzino’s treatment of fabric in paintings such as "Noli me tangere" with Mary Magdalene's dress following the movement of her body, the "Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi" or the "Portrait of a Woman" (probably Matteo Sofferoni's daughter), with their emphasis on the draped and sliced sleeves of the dresses, is simply astonishing.
In Lucrezia Panciatichi’s painting, the sitter’s social status is highlighted by her posture and jewels comprising a belt of semi-precious stones in gold and pearls and a ruby in the centre of a round pendant and a chain with the circular inscription “Amour dure sans fin” (“Love lasts without end”).
Bronzino also paid a lot of attention to the surface elaboration and the cut of his sitter's garments, as displayed for example in the black doublet worn by the young man with a lute or in the "Portrait of Lorenzo Lenzi".
In the Renaissance fabric gave value to a garment (fashion design students pay attention to this point) and the colour and brightness of the different materials was also extremely important.
While the lower classes wore mainly beige garments and coloured scarves around their necks or on their heads (dyes were expensive and they were therefore used only for garments worn on special occasions), the aristocracy opted for luxurious garments in vivid colours and with great attention to details.
Buttons came for example in different shapes and at times they were even decorated with tiny painted motifs (in Bronzino’s works they were depicted in the most minute details).
Perfumes, cosmetics and accessories such as embroidered silk belts, handkerchiefs decorated with tassels and elaborate socks completed an outfit.
There are actually some accessories used in the Renaissance that I think should be produced once again, among them there are also leather or fabric perfumed gloves (they were essentially gloves drenched in different perfumed essences) with strategically placed slashes that covered one's hands and at the same time allowed to reveal the precious rings adorning delicate fingers.
Apparently, such gloves could also be used as weapons: according to the legend, Catherine de’ Medici, queen of France and wife of Henry II, gave a pair of gloves drenched in poison (crime novelists looking for accessories to use in a thriller set in the world of fashion don’t look further than this…) to her mother-in-law, Jeanne d’Albret, killing her (if that's true, Catherine must have been a rather interesting character à la Patrizia Reggiani, Maurizio’s Gucci’s “Black Widow”…).
The Bronzino exhibition in Florence also features works by Pontormo, Cellini, Tribolo, Baccio Bandinelli, Pierino da Vinci and Alessandro Allori (Bronzino’s pupil) and three absolute rarities, the "Crucified Christ", "St Cosmas" and "Christ Carrying the Cross".
If you're into fashion, just don't forget to bring a brand new notebook, a pencil and a lot of bright colours (knitwear lovers should also linger a bit more in front of the sumptuous tapestries illustrating the Biblical story of Joseph based on Bronzino's drawings and manufactured by Flemish weavers as they feature some wonderful colours and delicate pale pink/blue and gold nuances) since you'll spend most of your time taking notes and sketching.
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Interesting article. Great read.
Posted by: Frank Zweegers | January 28, 2011 at 02:26 PM