A Wanderer in FlorenceLucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)
History
A Wanderer in Florence
Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)
Art -- Italy -- Florence; Florence (Italy) -- Description and travel
The two priceless rooms devoted to Iscrizioni come next, but we
will finish the pictures first and therefore pass on to the Sala di
Baroccio. Federigo Baroccio (1528-1612) is one of the later painters
for whom I, at any rate, cannot feel any enthusiasm. His position in
the Uffizi is due rather to the circumstance that he was a protégé of
the Cardinal della Rovere at Rome, whose collection came here, than to
his genius. This room again is of interest rather historically than
artistically. Here, for example, are some good Medici portraits by
Bronzino, among them the famous Eleanora of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I,
in a rich brocade (in which she was buried), with the little staring
Ferdinand I beside her. Eleanora, as we saw in chapter V. was the first
mistress of the Pitti palace, and the lady who so disliked Cellini and
got him into such trouble through his lying tongue. Bronzino's little
Maria de' Medici--No. 1164--is more pleasing, for the other picture has
a sinister air. This child, the first-born of Cosimo I and Eleanora,
died when only sixteen. Baroccio has a fine portrait--Francesco Maria
II, last Duke of Urbino, and the grandfather of the Vittoria della
Rovere whom we saw in the Sala di Rubens. Here also is a portrait
of Lorenzo the Magnificent by Vasari, but it is of small value
since Vasari was not born till after Lorenzo's death. The Galileo
by Sustermans--No. 163--on the contrary would be from life; and
after the Tribuna portrait of Rubens' first wife it is interesting
to find here his pleasant portrait of Helen Fourment, his second. To
my eyes two of the most attractive pictures in the room are the Young
Sculptor--No. 1266--by Bronzino, and the version of Leonardo's S. Anne
at the Louvre by Andrea Salaino of Milan (1483?-1520?). I like also
the hints of tenderness of Bernardino Luini which break through the
hardness of the Aurelio Luini picture--No. 204. For the rest there are
some sickly Guido Renis and Carlo Dolcis and a sentimental Guercino.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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