Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici in armour

Cosimo de' Medici was 17 when his predecessor Alessandro was murdered in 1537 and the Florentine council picked him to take over, and in August of that year his troops destroyed an army of exiled Florentines at Montemurlo. Around 1543 Bronzino gave him a portrait to match the position: the duke in white steel, one hand resting on his helmet. The picture was made to be repeated. Bronzino and his workshop produced some 25 nearly identical versions for allies, officials and foreign courts, and the one in Poznan is among them. Specialists still argue over which of these left Bronzino's own hand and which came from the shop. The armour itself has been traced to the Innsbruck court armourer Jorg Seusenhofer and was probably a gift from the Habsburgs.