Ferdinando I de' medici as a child

The child here is Ferdinando de' Medici, a younger son of Duke Cosimo I, painted around 1560 when he was about eleven. Being a younger son, he was pointed toward the Church, and at 14 he was made a cardinal, though he was never ordained a priest. He spent years in Rome, buying art and minding the family's affairs there. Then in 1587 his older brother Francesco, who ruled Tuscany, died suddenly, and Ferdinando gave up the cardinal's hat, came back to Florence, and took the throne as Grand Duke. The likeness comes from Bronzino's workshop, which turned out many such portraits of Cosimo's several children for the family and its allies.