Evidence of Replication in a Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo Byagnolo Bronzino and Workshop

Abstract

Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo and Her Son in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, attributed to Agnolo Bronzino, was recently cleaned and consolidated. Nearly identical to a portrait by Bronzino in the Uffizi Gallery, the Detroit portrait had long been judged by scholars to be a replica, a copy by the artist. Material, compositional, technical, and qualitative evidence collected during treatment supported, wholly or in part, identification of the Detroit portrait as a contemporary copy of the Uffizi portrait, as the product of a workshop, and as the work of Bronzino himself. Art historical research established replication to be a part of Bronzino's practice. Compositional and qualitative comparisons were conducted between the Uffizi and Detroit portraits. Analysis included x-radiography, x-ray fluorescence, infrared reflectography, visual and cross-sectional analysis, and polarizing light microscopy.