Presented the great exhibition dedicated to the Duchess of Florence immortalized by Agnolo Bronzino

Starting on February the 7th, the largest exhibition ever dedicated to the "Grande dame of the Sixteenth Century ": over 100 works, with major international loans, paintings, drawings, tapestries, costumes, jewels and gems will recount the life, personality and extensive cultural impact of Eleonora di Toledo.

Wife of Cosimo de' Medici, who after her death became Grand Duke, duchess and head of state in Florence, a politically powerful woman, the founder of the Boboli Gardens, but also an iconic beauty, Eleonora was a fashion innovator and trendsetter in her day, a passionate patron of the arts, a dazzling (if rare) example of female authority and charisma in the Renaissance. Daughter of the Viceroy of Naples, don Pedro de Toledo, Eleonora was endowed with exceptional managerial skills and played a fundamental role in the construction of the Medici court, introducing Spanish court etiquette in Florence, revolutionizing the fashions of the elite, contributing to the transformation of the Tuscan landscape. Se was as ambitious as her husband, with whom she worked closely to realize important objectives: reinforce the stability of the state, ensure that her eldest son succeeded to the ducal title and that her second son obtained a cardinalate, improve Cosimo’s title from duke to grand duke, a goal achieved only after Eleonora’s premature death at the age of forty from tuberculosis.

The exhibition, organized by the Uffizi Galleries and curated by Bruce Edelstein, professor of art history at New York University Florence, may be seen from February 7 to May 14 in the magnificent halls of the Treasury of the Grand Dukes on the ground floor of the Pitti Palace.

Bronzino, Ritratto di Eleonora di Toledo con il figlio Giovanni, Agnolo Bronzino, 1545 circa, Gallerie degli UffiziPierino da Vinci,  Giovane divinità fluviale accompagnata da tre putti, 1548 circa, prestito del LouvreBaccio Bandinelli, busto di Cosimo I de' Medici, 1544c., marmo, musei del BargelloBaccio Bandinelli, busto di Cosimo I de' Medici, bronzo, 1544, Musei del BargelloArte Mixteca, Maschera di divinità, periodo post classico tardo (XV-XVI sec.)Roma Museo delle CiviltàFrancesco Ferrucci detto del Tadda, Medaglioni coi busti di Eleonora e Cosimo, 1555-60, porfido rosso su ovale di marmo serpentino verde, Musei del BargelloAbito femminile (probabilmente indossato da una delle damigelle di Eleonora quando fu ricevuta in Vaticano nel 1560 da Papa Pio IV), 1560, prestito del Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale di Pisa, eseguito dalla bottega di Agostino da GubbioDisegno per il monumento effimero a Giovanni delle Bande Nere, Niccolò Tribolo (prestito del Musée du Louvre)Valeri Cioli, il nano Barbino e il nano Morgante, marmo, 1564-68Gerard David, Deposizione di Cristo dalla Croce, 1515-20, Arte romana, orafio fiorentino, anello d'oro con intaglio in niccolo, I sec. d.C.- XVI sec
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Eleonora di Toledo and the Invention of the Medici Court in Florence

Treasury of the Grand Dukes
7 February - 14 May 2023

The visit is included in the Pitti Palace entry ticket.

More info.