Cosimo I

“The Marriage Portrait” exhumes a similarly fated youngster: Lucrezia, the daughter of Cosimo I de’ Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Later, as the Medici consolidated ducal power under Cosimo I, the dress becomes more sumptuous and little props creep in, especially books, including volumes by Petrarch and other authors who wrote not in Latin, but in the Italian of Tuscany.

And paintings now could be copied and sent throughout Italy and Europe, propagandizing for Cosimo I, the Medici and Florence all at once.

The star here is the consummate Agnolo Bronzino, who became one of Cosimo I’s court painters in 1539, and made more than half of the 49 paintings on view.

Beside Alessandro, an easily-missed bronze medal depicts his distant cousin Lorenzino de’ Medici, whom history remembers for assassinating Alessandro in 1537, clearing the way for Cosimo I’s ascension.