Analysis Of Alessandro Allori's Portrait Of Francesco De Medici

Alessandro Allori reproduces the view of a young man in 3/4s view in his portrait of Francesco de Medici (c. 1560). Every element of the portrait, from its dominant red key to the intricate gold embroidery of the sitter’s costume connotes virtue.This rectangular composition presents a young virtuous man deserving of his power and wealth. More importantly, it exposes the attitudes of the painter and patron as towards what virtues qualified a man as deserving privilege and power.
The sitter, facing the portrait plane at an angle somewhere between a 3/4s and a frontal view, is shown at 3/4s length. The sitter only occupies about ⅓ of the total pictorial space. The painter provides ample space for the depiction of the sitter’s surroundings. Heavy red curtains of velvet dominate the scene. No reference is made to a reality outside these dark heavy curtains so the viewer assumes that we are in an interior space, likely a room in the home of Francesco de Medici. Though Allori dedicated the majority of the pictorial space in the portrait of Francesco de Medici to the background he clearly placed more emphasis on the foreground. The brushstrokes of the curtains are looser and less deliberate than those in the foreground. The painter's hand is left visible. Additionally, Allori only includes mid tones in his

This expense is shown by fine materials and by fine detail work. The sitter’s red doublet is heavily adorned with very detailed gold embroidery. An expensive, likely imported lace peeks out at his wrists. A line of gold buttons leads up to the most extravagant portion of the sitter’s costume, his collar. This white collar is decorated with gold threat and small pearls or balls of silver. All of this luxury is undercut by the incongruous dark brown rope necklace the sitter wears. Such a piece, when seen with the sitter’s full outfit, must be taken to be some mark of distinction or