Lot 2012 Dα

The present portrait, which until recently was attributed to Giorgio Vasari, is a later version of the famous portrait by Vasari in the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence, with small differences in the background. Roberto Ciabattini (2006, p. 136) suggests that Vasari himself, when asked for a later version of the portrait of Alessandro de´ Medici, forwarded the commission to Carlo Portelli. The portrait displays interesting stylistic similarities to other portraits in armor by the artist, such as the Allegorical Portrait of Giovanni della Bande Nere (Minneapolis Institute of Art) and the Portrait of Cosimo I (Robert Simon Fine Art, NY). The Duke is depicted in full armor, seated before the city of Florence. As we know from Vasari´s letter to Ottaviano de Medici in 1534, the iconography is rather complex. It celebrates the Duke and his rise to power: The shining armor refers to the bright example that the sitter should provide, the round seat to his perpetual reign, and the red carpet is a symbol of the blood shed during the rebellion against the Medici. Alessandro de´ Medici governed the city of Florence between 1531 and his assassination in 1537. Duca Alessandro, as he was known, was thought to be an illegitimate son of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clemente VII, who was himself an illegitimate son of Giuliano De Medici) and a black servant. At least this was what many of his contemporaries thought, and what was suggested by Francesco Berni in his satirical poems (XXIX Sonetto di Papa Chimente). Alessandro became Duke and Gonfalonier of Florence for life in 1532. In 1534 - the date of Vasari's portrait - he married Margherita d'Austria, illegitimate daughter of Charles V. Thus, this pair of illegitimate children came to embody the two highest authorities: Empire and Papacy.