The Deposition

In 1548 Cosimo I de' Medici began building a fortified port on the island of Elba and named it Cosmopolis, after himself. The town is today's Portoferraio. For the Observant Franciscans there, he ordered this Deposition from Bronzino. Getting a panel this size to an island was a project of its own. It went by boat down the Arno and then by sea, and a letter Cosimo wrote to the painter in February 1565 records its arrival in Pisa, ready to sail. For a long time scholars dated the picture by that letter, overlooking the inscription Bronzino had painted on it, which gives the year 1561 and dedicates the work to the glory of God. The museum identifies an elderly bearded face in the crowd, turned toward the viewer, as his self-portrait. The panel stayed on Elba until the late 18th century and came to the Accademia in 1817.