Pierantonio Bandini

As court painter to the Medici, Bronzino executed official portraits of Duke Cosimo I, his family, and the Florentine nobility. This portrait has recently been identified as Pierantonio Bandini (born 1514), one of the wealthiest and most prominent Florentine bankers living in Rome in the second half of the sixteenth century. The blue figure of a "Venus Pudica" (modest Venus) may refer to Pierantonio's collecting interests and to the antiquities recorded at his property at Monte Cavallo, Rome. Frane: carved wood, gilded. Italy, second half 16th century