In 2010, I gave a presentation on Bronzino's lovely Renaissance painting. This is the abstract that was published in the National Conference on Undergraduate Research:
Eleonora
of Toledo with her Son is one of Bronzino’s most highly celebrated portraits
for its beauty and delicately painted details. The state portrait also implies
significant propagandic messages, creating an idealized image for the new
foreign-born wife of Cosimo de’ Medici. Countless scholars interpret the
sizeable pomegranate pattern in the center of her dress as symbol of her
fertility. She was the mother of eleven children. However, none state that when
the portrait was commissioned she would have only had somewhere between two and
four children. Denoting the pomegranate as an indication of Eleonora’s
fecundity is logical, but I propose that there is more to the motif. In order
to better understand the value and meaning of the symbol on the dress, we must
look to her heritage.
My
research supports the argument that the pomegranate pattern on her dress
references the city of Granada, a tremendously important location in the
history of Catholicism in Spain.
The word for pomegranate in Eleonora’s mother tongue is la granada. As a reference to the city of Granada, the dress that Bronzino painted suggests the duchess’ devotion to her Catholic faith and
Spanish roots.
For more
on the National Conference on Undergraduate Research-
For more on this portrait please email EmilyJ@rhodes-alumni.net
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