(piano playing) Dr. Zucker: We'ere in the Uffizi and
we're looking at Eleonora of Toledo. It's a painting by Bronzino, one of the
leading portraits of the Mannerist period. Dr. Harris: He painted many
portraits for the Medici family, this one for Cosimo de Medici and this one
of Cosimo's wife and their 2 year old son. Dr. Zucker: This is a painting that is,
I think, a little surprising in some ways because we're used to seeing
intimacy between mother and child, and you would expect that in
a family portrait, but this
is such a cold painting. Dr. Harris: Although, that aloofness
and distance is something that we
often see in Mannerist painting. Dr. Zucker: Very much prized, that
was very much the attempt here. It's also because this woman
comes from the Spanish Court. The strictness of Spanish protocol
was important to her and she
was apparently influential, in terms of imposing that courtly manner
in the Court of Medici here in Italy. Dr. Harris: This is a painting
very much about the Medici Dynasty and assuring the future of that
Dynasty through their son, shown
here and through Elanora, the mother. Dr. Zucker: How do we know
that she is of the court? There's no specific reference to their
power except through their wealth. Look at the size of the jewels,
look at the brocade in that gown. Look at the way in which the satin or
the taffeta underneath is so reflective, but then you have that heavy brocade
that's been applied on top of it. It encases her body,
almost imprisoning her. Dr. Harris: Bronzino is a master
at painting those textures and even the light reflecting on each of
the pearls and the jewels that she wears, not only around her neck but also around
her waist and the gold glistening their. But above all there's that
aristocratic aloofness and a
real detachment and coldness. I almost feel her looking down at me. Dr. Zucker: She is elevated
in a number of different ways, not only, of course, is she central and
she fills the frame almost completely, but Bronzino has lightened the
blue of the background right
around the back of her head, almost a subtle halo. In addition he's created blemishless
skin that is almost no longer elastic, commentators have called
it alabaster like. Both mother and son are
perfect, but they're almost
shells, they're almost masks. There is a kind of absence
of an internal spark and a kind of attentiveness that we
had come to expect in the Renaissance, but, of course, again, this is Mannerist
and the Mannerist's love to play fast and loose with all of those
traditions from the Renaissance
and especially naturalism. (piano playing)