Public Lecture: A Room of Her Own: Art and Emotion in Bronzino's Chapel for Eleonora of Toledo

BGSU Art History invites you to a Public Lecture

Tuesday, October 20 at 5:00 p.m.

Donnell Theater in the Wolfe Center for the Arts, BGSU

A Room of Her Own: Art and Emotion in Bronzino’s Chapel for Eleonora di Toledo

Dr. Heather Graham

School of Art, California State University, Long Beach

Nestled within the interior of the formidable Palazzo Vecchio in Florence is a sumptuous intimate retreat: the private chapel of Duchess Eleonora di Toledo (r.1539–62). Painted by the court artist Agnolo Bronzino in the 1540s, the jewel-like space is an extraordinary testament to the virtuosity of sixteenth-century Florentine art. Emotionally charged sacred narratives adorn the walls, while massively-scaled saints loom over the interior from the false vault of the ceiling. The centerpiece of the decorative program is the altarpiece of the Lamentation, a scene of poignant collective grief. Bronzino’s scenes are populated by monumental figures whose idealized bodies writhe across the space, while emphatic gestures, brilliant coloring, and illusory shifts of medium seem calculated to elicit profound emotional response. This lecture explores Bronzino’s art in light of sixteenth-century understanding of the emotions. We will consider how the form and content of imagery in Eleonora’s chapel may have engaged her own emoting body, cultivating an emotional space for her personal worship within the domestic interior of the Palazzo.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Questions may be directed to Dr. Allie Terry-Fritsch (Art History): [email protected]