Customer Reviews

Bronzino

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This Bronzino book is said to be the first Bronzino biography since 1982... Isn't that reason enough to buy this book?

It is a sad fact that Bronzino is not considered a great artist as Michelangelo and other Florentine mannierists are. And why is that? He is basically seen as a portrait painter (painting portrait on commision), depicting the outfits carefully, but providing the sitter with a distant appearance. And that's a good description, but doesn't give us the whole picture.

First of all because his portraits, whether male or female, are so detailed and precise you can almost feel the fabrics in the outfits. Secondly because his portraits played an important role in the Florentine society and especially in the Medici "monarchy". Being best known for the portrait of Eleonora di Toledo and son (on the cover of the book), he painted most of the Medici family on important occations, establishing the myth of the divinity of the Medicis.

He also painted altar pieces and wall frescos, most of which are well preserved today. But lesser known, he was also a poet - an excellent poet - writing and publishing quite a few poems in his his time. Bronzino is a wonderful artist within the Italian manierist style, and was well-loved in the 16.th century.

The book is very well written, and it also unfolds his work in a new way - sorting it out after category (poems, female portraits, male portraits, frescos etc). Further more, it describes the master he learned it all from, as well as contemporary and later artists and works. It also gives examples of much of what is described, and it contains tons of colour photos as well as useful close ups of the different works.

If you like Bronzino, manierism, Florence history or Italian Renaissance, I would highly recommend this book. I spent quite some time looking for Bronzino biograpies both in libraries and online before I stumbled across this book. It is worth every penny/dime/øre/cent.

The definitive study on this master of Italian mannerism, this book shows all the facets of his art, from the highly-acclaimed portraits to the more conventional religious works, and, of course his mythological paintings (see the one in the National Gallery London, brilliantly commented). Originally published in French, it is full of beautiful images, with a profusion of details, close-ups and to-the-point remarks. A must-have in any fine arts library.

For some reason, Bronzino does not get much coverage in the art book press. I've been on the lookout for nearly 10 years! This work has detailed background text and good reproduction. Not only do I recommend it, my wife, a true art history buff, gives it a big thumbs up.