Rediscovery points to an Italian master

A well-travelled Bronzino, perhaps a self-portrait, is set to make waves in New York

- Huon Mallalieu

PERHAPS I should not have decided to write about the rediscovered Bronzino portrait that Sotheby's will offer in New York on January 26 (Fig 1). The 30/in by 21/in half-length painting of a man with a quill and a sheet of paper could be the personification of writer's block. That seems to be implied by the Latin lines he has managed to get down, which translate as:

The image thinks to write but in fact it does not write It writes of its own accord, but it does not act of its own accord Therefore, it does so unwillingly and writes as little as possible It intends, further, to write, so that it is not necessary...

It has been suggested that this is an early self-portrait of the Mannerist master who was court painter to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. The written words do imply that and there is also something akin to the Surrealism of Magritte's Ceci n'est pas une pipe. However, Bronzino, the nickname of Agnolo di Cosimo (1503-72), possibly referred to red hair, whereas this subject is dark. If a selfportrait, the meaning would be still more convoluted, as the 'writer' may have prevaricated, but the painter evidently did not.

The painting's history is quite as fascinating as any meaning it may have. An early owner was Sir William Temple (1628–99), diplomat, politician, adviser to Charles II, essayist and influential gardener and writer on landscape gardening. He introduced the word and concept of sharawadgi, or Chinese gardening, to England. Later, it belonged to Hugh Blaker (1873–1936), who regarded himself as an artist, but was far more notable as a collector and dealer. He advised the sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies in building the great collection that they eventually left to the National Museum of Wales.