''Portrait of the Dwarf Nano Morgante'' is a 1552 double-sided painting offering front and back views on either side of the canvas by

Bronzino Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( it, Il Bronzino ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddis ...

Nano Morgante Nano Morgante (nickname of Braccio di Bartolo - English: Dwarf Morgante 1600s) was an Italian dwarf who was a famed buffoon and court jester in the court of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Morgante was ironically nicknamed after the gi ...

(nickname of Braccio di Bartolo) the famed buffoon dwarf of

Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Life Rise to power Cosimo was born in Florence on 12 ...

who is also immortalized in

Valerio Cioli Valerio Cioli (or Cigoli or Giogoli) (1529–1599) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor. Works His most famous work is the '' Fontana del Bacchino'' (1560) in the Giardino di Boboli, near the entrance to piazza Pitti in Florence. It depicts th ...

's Fontana del Bacchino at the

Boboli Gardens The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. The work was commissioned from Bronzino by Cosimo. It portrays Morgante on both sides as a bird-catcher, as he was not permitted to hunt bigger game, this being a pursuit reserved for persons of greater echelon. Morgante is depicted respectively from the front and back at two subsequent moments of the action: at the front we see him before the hunt, holding an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

in a snare to be used as a bait to capture a jay that is flying in the air. A duo of rare

swallowtail butterflies Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful Butterfly, butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes ...

cover his genitals; these were discovered recently, when the painting was last restored. From behind, we see him just about to turn towards the viewer, anxious to visually boast of his take. At this time Bronzino was involved in the great Florentine debate laid down by

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...

called "

Paragone Paragone ( it, paragone, meaning ''comparison''), was a debate during the Italian Renaissance in which painting and sculpture (and to a degree, architecture) were each championed as forms of art superior and distinct to each other. While other ar ...

", sculpture versus painting. Of course Bronzino came down on the side of painting, so he painted this two-sided front and back portrait of Morgante to retort the argument that a subject could be seen from more angles in sculpture. In 2010 this work was restored, after many years of neglect, and placed on permanent display in its own glass case in the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Nano Morgante 1560 paintings Florence Mannerism Paintings by Bronzino