The dwarf Morgante makes his return to the Pitti Palace.

The famous Portrait of the Dwarf Morgante is now on display in the Apollo Room of the Palatine Gallery of the Pitti Palace in Florence. It is a very fragile work; from 2013 to 2016 it had been placed in the corridor on the second floor of the Uffizi, where due to the vibrations of the floor in the middle of the corridor from the flow of visitors, its preservation was in danger. Now the work has been fitted with a new case with state-of-the-art anti-reflective glass and a shock-absorbing system.

The dwarf Morgante is thus back in the palace where he spent most of his life: Braccio di Bartolo, this is his real name, was in fact one of the five court jesters of Cosimo I de’ Medici.

The portrait was made by Bronzino in about 1553: the artist painted the canvas on both sides, depicting from the front and from behind the famous character while hunting birds; in the portrait from the front he is presented before the hunt, while holding an owl on his arm as bait to attract a flying jay, and in the portrait from behind he is presented while holding his prey while looking at the viewer.

The name Morgante ironically refers to the giant protagonist of Luigi Pulci ’s poem of the same name and, given its popularity at the time of Cosimo I, it can be found in other masterpieces celebrated today, including Valerio Cioli ’s marble sculpture for the Bacchino fountain in the Boboli Gardens, Giambologna ’s bronze sculpture for the small fountain in the hanging garden above the Loggia dei Lanzi, now on display at the Bargello, and also at the base of the Grand Duke’s equestrian monument in Piazza della Signoria.

In the 19th century Bronzino’s canvas underwent a heavy restoration that transformed the dwarf Morgante into the god Bacchus, adding a crown of vine leaves on his head, concealing his nudity with a garland of vine leaves and bunches of grapes, and repainting the owl by making it into a wine goblet. Additions that were removed in 2010 during a delicate restoration operation.

"The chronicles tell us that Braccio di Bartolo had a complex and witty personality, charismatic and sometimes quarrelsome. He was one of the protagonists of the social and political life of the court, very dear to Cosimo I, whose five-hundredth anniversary of his birth is being celebrated this year. The installation at Palazzo Pitti of his portrait painted by Bronzino (who was indisputably the greatest painter of that court) is therefore both a museographic and celebratory occasion. And moreover, it is an operation that safeguards such a fragile work from the risks of detachment of the pictorial film," said the director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt.

Image: Agnolo di Cosimo known as Bronzino, Portrait of the Dwarf Morgante (c. 1553; oil on canvas, 149 x 98 cm; Florence, Palatine Gallery, Palazzo Pitti)

The dwarf Morgante makes his return to the Pitti Palace.

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