Alessandro Allori

Alessandro Allori was raised in the household of Agnolo Bronzino, the cool, polished court painter of the Medici, who took the orphaned boy in and trained him. Allori absorbed that enamelled Mannerist style so completely that his early work can be mistaken for his master's.

He became a reliable court painter to the Medici grand dukes of Florence, turning out altarpieces, portraits, and designs for the grand-ducal tapestry and hardstone workshops. His figures are elegant and hard-edged, sometimes coldly so, the last generation of a manner that had ruled Florence for decades.

By the time he died in 1607 that style looked old-fashioned beside the new naturalism spreading from Rome. His son Cristofano Allori became the more admired painter, remembered above all for one dark masterpiece, Judith with the Head of Holofernes.