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A Hidden Sphinx by Agnolo Bronzino, “ex tabula Cebetis Thebani”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

John F. Moffitt
John F. Moffitt*
Affiliation:
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces
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Extract

In 1568 Giorgio Vasari Described (from already dim memories) a now-famous allegorical painting that had been painted by Bronzino (Agnolo Allori) for Cosimo I de’ Medici. Now usually known as The Exposure of Luxury, the picture in the National Gallery in London seems by general acknowledgement to have been done around 1545 (Fig. I). According to Vasari's recollection Bronzino had “made a picture of singular beauty” that was sent to the king of France, François I. As best as Vasari could recall, the particulars of its complicated iconographic program were all devoted to variations on an erotic theme inasmuch as the picture included figures of “a nude Venus with [her son] Cupid, who was [shown] kissing her, and alongside [them] there were [other representations of] ‘Pleasure - il Piacere’ and ‘Idle Sport - il Giuoco’ accompanied by other ‘Loves-Amori.’

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , Summer 1993 , pp. 277 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1993

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