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Alessandro de' Medici
Jacopo da Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci) Italian
Not on view
Alessandro was installed as the ruler of Florence in 1532. He was the son of either Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, or Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici (the future Pope Clement VII) and a servant woman, possibly enslaved and believed to be of African descent. Portrayed by anti-Medici factions as an amoral tyrant, he was lured to a promised tryst and murdered by his cousin five years later. In Pontormo’s portrait, Alessandro’s simple attire and composed demeanor contribute to an air of sobriety, as befits a ruler. He is drawing a picture of a woman, thereby situating the portrait within a poetics of love. Is she his mistress or his prospective wife, Margaret of Austria, illegitimate daughter of Emperor Charles V?
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