Portraits of Children by Agnolo Bronzino

The focus in the portrait is Eleonora, but the choice to include her son Giovanni was no afterthought.  Her ornately embroidered dress, a string of pearls around her neck, and a gold and bejeweled chain around her waist complete with a tassel of hundreds of tiny pearls demonstrates the family’s wealth.  Her arm around her young son indicates not only a protective maternal gesture but a transfer of power from mother to son.  There is a similar distant look in the eyes of both of the sitters, a common convention in Renaissance portraiture of adults.[11]

Bronzino’s portrait of the third son of the Medici family, García, is a prime example of the way families would use portraits of their children as status symbols.  García, though only about eighteen months old[12], has remarkable posture and a serious demeanor.  The pudgy cheeks and disheveled hair are the only childlike traits he possesses.  Bronzino omits any gestures or expressions that would be typical of a child, encouraging viewers to see him as a capable heir to the Dukedom [13].  The way he holds the gold chain and amulet delicately as if understanding its value and showing it off does not reflect the way a child would actually hold such an object.  His stiff red and gold clothing adorned with pearl encrusted collar and cuffs seem an impractical outfit for a child of this age.  Both his clothing and his demeanor foreshadow the powerful man he will become.

This portrait features another of Cosimo I’s sons, Giovanni.  Bronzino painted human figures as accurately as a still life, which is in part what made him indispensable in the Medicean court.  Young Giovanni’s brilliant red clothing and gold chains are remarkably lifelike.  In his hand, he holds a goldfinch, a symbol of the resurrection of Christ, which indicates a strong affiliation with his religion.  Giovanni grew up to be a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church[14].  Perhaps his parents had decided his future early in his life and chose to portray him to the world holding a symbol of Christ and dressed in red.  As a Cardinal, Giovanni would wear the traditional red cassock, the color signifying the blood of Christ.

"When I look at them, I think them so many angels, and when I listen to them, they seem to be spirits from heaven"[15].

In a letter written during his time in Pisa working for the Medici family, Bronzino described the children of Cosimo I as "angelic", "wise", and "beautiful" and compares them to angels[16].  In this portrait of Cosimo I's daughter Bia, we get a sense of the grace that he saw in these children.  Bia's face relays a sweetness characteristic of a child, but her posture and dress are very adult-like.  Her faint smile is more reserved than the one we see in her brother Giovanni's portrait.  The way her hand delicately rests on the arm of the chair indicates grace and elegance, traits the family would want the public to see in their daughter.

Bronzino did not exclusively paint the members of the Medici family.  In this painting, he depicted Christ and St. John as young children.  Of the five figures in this painting, Christ is the only one whose body and gaze are oriented directly towards the viewer.  The viewer’s gaze and the other eyes in the painting are directed towards Christ.  Bronzino captures the anatomy of a child but still makes it very clear that Christ holds a tremendous amount of power.  Bronzino’s theme of using children to announce power and influence seen in his paintings of the Medici children is also evident in this devotional painting.