A Guest at the Palace | “The portrait of a young man with a lute” by Agnolo Bronzino

24 May — 21 July 2014
Palazzo Cini. La Galleria, Venezia

Agnolo Bronzino, the portrait of a young man with a lute (1532-1534), Firenze, Uffizi Gallery

The Guest at the Palace initiative, promoted by the Art History Institute of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, was created through collaborations with some of the most prestigious Italian and international museum institutions. Conceived to temporarily enrich the museum holdings of Galleria di Palazzo Cini, the project features the exhibition of particularly important artworks granted on extraordinary loan and hosted for several months in the historic residence of Vittorio Cini, which houses the masterpieces of his remarkable art collection.

The portrait of a young man with a lute by Agnolo Bronzino (Monticelli, Florence, 17 November 1503 – Florence, 23 November 1572), from the Uffizi Gallery, inaugurated the series of Guests at the Palace works at Palazzo Cini, in the year of the reopening of Palazzo Cini at San Vio.

The painting established a perfect dialogue with the portraiture of the master Pontormo, especially with the Double Portrait of Friends, which was simultaneously displayed in the major exhibition Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. Diverging Paths of the “Maniera” held at Palazzo Strozzi (Florence, 8 March – 20 July 2014). This collaboration between the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi created an ideal bridge between the two great cities of art: Venice and Florence.

The portrait of a young man with a lute

The portrait of a young man with a lute (1532–1534), in which Agnolo Bronzino portrays the poet and musician Giovanni Battista Strozzi, is a fascinating work from the Florentine painter’s youth and represents a supreme example of Mannerism understood as an intensification of classical norms and Renaissance visual codes.

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The painting from the Uffizi Gallery, an exceptional “guest” for the reopening of Palazzo Cini at San Vio, establishes a perfect dialogue with the portraiture of the master Pontormo, especially with the Double Portrait of Friends, one of the masterpieces of the Tuscan Renaissance from the Cini Collection, with which it shares profound cultural affinities and subtle symbolic relationships. Following the logic of these affinities, the Double Portrait is now displayed in the remarkable exhibition Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. Diverging Paths of the “Maniera” held at Palazzo Strozzi (Florence, 8 March – 20 July 2014), as part of a collaboration between the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, creating an ideal bridge between the two great cities of art: Venice and Florence.