About the Artwork
Portraiture was an important political tool for the ducal Medici family. Often sent abroad as gifts, portraits such as this one represented the stability and legitimacy of Medici rule in Florence. Eleonora of Toledo (1519–62), the wife of Cosimo I, was the daughter of the viceroy of Naples and therefore an important diplomatic liaison for the Florentine ruler. She and Cosimo had eleven children. The Identity of this child is uncertain, but most likely he is her second son, Giovanni (1543–62). The first version of this portrait (ca. 1545) is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Eleonora of Toledo and Her Son
between 1545 and 1550
Agnolo Bronzino (Artist) Italian, 1503-1572 Agnolo Bronzino (Artist) Italian, 1503-1572
Oil on wood panel
Unframed: 47 7/8 × 39 3/8 inches (121.6 × 100 cm) Framed: 66 × 57 1/2 × 5 1/2 inches (167.6 × 146.1 × 14 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Gift of Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth in memory of her husband Ralph Harman Booth
42.57
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
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Provenance
until 1852, Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (Hamilton Palace, Glasgow, Scotland)
until 1882, 12th Duke of Hamilton
June 24, 1882, Christie’s auction, Collection Duke of Hamilton, lot 399 (London, England) [to dealer, J.W. Vokins acting for H. Bingham Mildmay]
until 1893, London & Flete, Collection H. Bingham Mildmay (Devon, England)
1922, Kleinberger Galleries, no. 15,510 (Paris, France and New York, New York, USA)
1923, Ralph Harmon Booth (Grosse Pointe Michigan, USA)
1942-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. 3. London, 1854, p. 305. [as in the collection of the Duke of Hamilton, as "Isabella"]
The Hamilton Palace Collection. Sales cat., Christie’s, London, June, 24 & 26 1882, p. 56, no. 399. [as "Portrait of Leonora di Toledo" by Bronzino]
Valentiner, W.R. "The Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute Arts 4, no. 6 (March 1923): 50–55, pp. 52–53 (ill.).
Comstock, Helen. "Bronzino in American Collections." International Studio 88 (November 1927): 51–55, p. 53 (ill.). [as replica of the version in the Uffizi, Florence in the collection of Ralph H. Booth]
McComb, Arthur. Agnolo Bronzino: His Life and Works. Cambridge, 1928, pp. 90. [as workshop copy, in the collection of Ralph H. Booth]
Berenson, Bernard. Italian pictures of the Renaissance: a list of the principal artists and their works with an index of places. Oxford, 1932, p. 114. [as by in part by the artist, Bronzino in the collection of Ralph H. Booth]
Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 98. [as in part by the artist, Bronzino, in the collection of Ralph H. Booth]
"Detroit Given Important Bronzino Portrait." Art Digest 17, no. 5 (December 1, 1942): 15, p. 15 (ill.). [as by Bronzino]
Valentiner, W.R. "Eleanora da Toledo by Bronzino." Bulletin of the DIA 22, no. 1 (October 1942): 1–3, front cover (ill.), pp. 2–3.
The Old AAA Traveler. "Joey Meets Art." Motor News (February 1943): 8, 22-23, p. 23.
Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts, Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, p. 18, no. 445. [dated about 1555]
Masterpieces of Painting and Sculpture from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1949, p. 58 (ill.).
Emiliani, Andrea. Il Bronzino. Milan, 1960, p. 69.
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School, vol. 1. New York, 1963, p. 41. [as by Bronzino, partly autograph]
Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts: a Check List of the Paintings Acquired before June 1965. Detroit, 1965, p. 18. [dated ca. 1555]
Fredericksen, Burton B. and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, 1972, p. 36. [as studio/school of Bronzino]
Baccheschi, Edi. L'opera completa del Bronzino. Milan, 1973, p. 95, no. 55a (ill.).
Cummings, Frederick J., ed. Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, p. 139, no. 112 (ill.).
Langedijk, Karla. The Portraits of the Medici, 15th–18th centuries. Florence, 1981, p. 694 cat. 35, no. 9. [as copy of Uffizi portrait, see cat. 10]
Henshaw, Julia, ed. 100 Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, p. 15, fig. 7 (ill.).
Moncrieff, Elspeth. "The Castello di Lunghezza: A Palpable Sense of History." Apollo 134, no. 355 (September 1991): 169–175, p. 174.
Henshaw, Julia, ed. A Visitor's Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 180 (ill.).
Urry, Serena. "Evidence of Replication in a Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo by Agnolo Bronzino and Workshop." Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 37, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 211-221, pp. 211–221 (ill.).
Dixon, Annette, ed. Women Who Ruled: Queens, Goddesses, Amazons in Renaissance and Baroque Art. Exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art. Ann Arbor, 2002, pp. 6 (ill.), 121, 126, pl. 51 (ill.); p. 185.
The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. New Haven, 2002, pp. 144–146 (ill.). [as "Eleonora of Toledo and Her Son Giovanni" dated after 1545]
Bulletin of the DIA: Annual Report 77, nos. 3/4 (2003): p. 15 (ill.).
Cox-Rearick, Janet, and Mary Westerman Bulgarella. “Public and Private Portraits of Cosimo de’ Medici and Eleonora di Toledo: Bronzino’s Paintings of His Ducal Patrons in Ottawa and Turin.” Artibus et Historiae 25, no. 49 (2004): pp. 101-159, p. 125 (ill.); 127.
Langdon, Gabrielle. Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal from the Court of Duke Cosimo I. Toronto, 2006, fig. 17 (ill.).
Evans, Godfrey. "Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamiliton (1767–1852) as Patron and Collector." Ph.D. diss., The University of Edinburgh, 2008, pp. 205, 206, n. 73; pp. 223, 347 (ill.).
Beal, Graham W.J. and Debra N. Mancoff. Treasures of the DIA. Detroit, 2015, pp. 104, 106–107, no. 9.1 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Agnolo Bronzino; workshop of Agnolo Bronzino, Eleonora of Toledo and Her Son, between 1545 and 1550, oil on wood panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth in memory of her husband Ralph Harman Booth, 42.57.
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