Bronzino, "Portrait of a young man", Metropolitan Musem of Art, New York

Speranza



An engraving of this portrat by Pietro Fontana, published in 1812, bears the title, "Guidolbaldo II, Duca d'Urbino" and iscribed to Sebastiano del Piombo.

The painting, however, is by Bronzino.

The sitter does njot seem to resemble the authenticated portraits of Guidobaldo II, Duca d'Urbino.

This portrait is one of Bronzino's best.

It was certainly painted in Firenze, possibly in the late 1530s.

The portrait reflecdts the restoration of the aristocracy in Florentine society after the failure of the republic and the reinstatement of the Medici.

It is part of the H. O. Havemeyer collection, and bequested to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1929.