Saint John the Baptist

In January 1560 Cosimo the First de' Medici, Duke of Florence, secured a cardinal's hat for his son Giovanni, who was 16. A year earlier the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis had ended the wars between France and Spain over Italy, and Cosimo's hold on Tuscany looked settled. Since the late 1980s this panel has been read as a portrait of that son in the guise of his namesake, John the Baptist, who was also the patron saint of Florence. The saint's attributes are all here, the animal skin over the shoulders, the cross of thin reeds, the bowl just filled at the spring. The face, with its thick curls and pink lips, belongs to a real young man. Bronzino carved his name into the rock at the lower left. Giovanni died of malaria in November 1562, aged 19.