Bronzino, 'Portrait of a Young Man', probably 1550-5

Bright colours surround this elegant young man. The pink curtains, green table cover and purplish statue create a bold mix that was fashionable in the 1550s. The sitter wears black and stares straight at us with a knowing look.

This portrait belongs to a series Bronzino painted of the literati. These were the learned men and women from Florence’s cultural circles in the 1530s and 1550s. The clear lines and vivid colours are like those in his portrait of Ludovico Capponi (Frick Collection, New York), which suggests this work dates to about 1550–5.

Bronzino was skilled at depicting different textures. The heavy wool doublet contrasts with the delicate lace collar of the white shirt. He showed his mastery by painting white-on-white effects where the shirt sits against the dark underlayer of the outfit.

The objects in the painting may give us clues about who this person was. He holds a book with gold-edged pages and baby-blue covers. The pages are blank, which may be deliberate. In other portraits, such as Laura Battiferri (Palazzo Vecchio, Florence) or Lorenzo Lenzi (Castello Sforzesco, Milan), Bronzino included books with readable text. The book’s gilded top edge is similar to the one in Young Man with a Book (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Its fine binding suggests it belonged to someone wealthy and educated.

The pulled-back curtain reveals a classical statue of Bacchus, the god of wine, with a child satyr. This might be a lost masterpiece by the sculptor Pierino da Vinci. He was Leonardo da Vinci’s nephew and was famous for carving a sculpture of Bacchus and a Satyr.

Pierino died in 1553 when he was just 23 years old, but already well known for his work. In May 1547, when he was only 17 or 18, this statue was recorded in the Bongianni Capponi collection. In the 1540s the teenage Pierino studied with Niccolò Tribolo, who was friends with Bronzino. Later, Pierino worked with Luca Martini in Pisa. Bronzino visited Pisa a number of times between 1549 and 1551, so they could have met. According to Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, Pierino created a clay model before carving his final statue. This may explain the purplish colour of the Bacchus in the painting.

Unfortunately, there is no evidence to confirm this identification. No one has found a definitive picture of Pierino. However, Bronzino’s portrait does reference debates about whether painting or sculpture was superior, known as paragone. The sculpture also creates a playful contrast with the man’s serious expression.

The painting’s history adds to the mystery. When it appeared in William Beckford’s collection in 1823, it had a completely different label. This described it as ‘the young Saint Louis Gonzaga’.