(Florence 1577–1621)
Portrait of a young nobleman, three-quarter-length,
oil on canvas, oval, 69 x 55 cm, framed

We are grateful to Sandro Bellesi for suggesting the attribution of the present painting on the basis of photographs.

The young sitter, seen turned left, three-quarters toward the viewer, is represented with great vitality and attention to detail in the rendering of his features and hair as well as in the depiction of the richly embroidered fabrics of his robes and delicate white lace ruff. The refinement of his dress clearly signals that the sitter was a member of the nobility or the highest echelons of the bourgeoisie.

Cristofano Allori was a leading protagonist in the cultural life of Florence under Ferdinando I and Cosimo II de Medici. As well as being a painter, he was also an accomplished poet and musician, and an integral member of the Medici court.

He first trained under his celebrated father, Alessandro Allori, and later worked with Gregorio Pagani, a pupil of Santi di Tito. In Pagani’s studio he became aware of the innovations of artists from beyond Tuscany, notably Federico Barocci and Correggio, the Carracci and the Venetian school of painting, and he was therefore able to go beyond his father’s mannerist counter-reformation style, so as to participate in the elaboration of the new figurative language that gained traction in Florence during the first decades of the seventeenth century.