Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, later Grand Duke Ferdinando I of Tuscany

The wealthy cardinal, Florentine statesman and art collector Ferdinando de’ Medici (1549–1609) is depicted sitting at a writing table, using a plain quill to inscribe his name and the date ‘1580’ on a sheet of paper. He wears a crimson silk cassock, white lace-edged cotta (or surplice) and crimson mozzetta (short, hooded and buttoned cape). Eight years after this portrait was painted, the subject relinquished his cardinalate to succeed his brother as Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The painting is closely based on Raphael’s portrait c.1518 of the cardinal’s kinsman, the Medici Pope Leo X. Scipione Pulzone was also a keen student of Venetian painting in the mannerist period, during which ornate, brightly coloured and richly textured surface effects were considered as the purest expression of high style in painting. The work was regarded in the early seventeenth century as one of the most distinguished portraits of the period, and the sparkling quality of light reflected in Cardinal de’ Medici’s eyes as among the marvels of Italian art.

The picture is also remarkable for a trompe l’oeil detail, by which the artist represented the tacking edge of a fictive, unframed canvas support on which the portrait is shown to have been painted. In other words, Pulzone treated the work as a painting within a painting.

Tony Magnusson, Curator of European Art, 2016–18