Portrait of Lorenzo di Giovanni de' Medici

The man in this portrait had been dead for about 145 years when Allori painted him. Lorenzo di Giovanni de' Medici, sometimes called the Elder, was the younger brother of Cosimo the Elder, the banker who first bent Florence to the family's will in the early 15th century. By 1585 the Medici were grand dukes, and they wanted a gallery of their forebears. Allori supplied portraits like this one for that dynastic series, working from older images rather than a living sitter, to give the ancestors a consistent, dignified face. The account books survive. This canvas was paid at 25 scudi and delivered on the 26th of October, 1585.