# Cosimo I de' Medici in Profile [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PONTORMO, Jacopo]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Black chalk, 421 x 215 mm ## Commentary This portrait shows Cosimo I de' Medici at about eighteen years old, just after he came to power on January 9, 1537, and before he grew a beard, probably later that year. This design was transferred to a panel, now in the Galleria Palatina in Palazzo Pitti. The profile view suggests that the drawing was a study for a sculpture or coin commission. Indeed, the same view of Cosimo appears in a <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/b/bandinel/1/cosimo.html'\)" href="/html/b/bandinel/1/cosimo.html">marble relief</a> from the workshop of Baccio Bandinelli and in a number of <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/v/vetri/medici1.html'\)" href="/html/v/vetri/medici1.html">medals</a> and coins meant to diffuse the image of the young ruler. After the <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/b/bronzino/1/cosimo.html'\)" href="/html/b/bronzino/1/cosimo.html">duke's official image</a> was painted by Bronzino in 1544, Pontormo no longer needed the drawing, so he used the verso to draw a group of nudes for the murals of San Lorenzo in Florence, a project that he worked on from 1545 to the end of his life. ## Related artworks - [Adam and Eve at Work]() - [Alessandro de' Medici in Profile]() - [Alessandro de' Medici]() - [Alessandro de' Medici]() - [Anatomical study]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation]() - [Birth Tray \(back\)]() - [Birth Tray \(front\)]() - [Christ before Pilate]() - [Christ the Judge with the Creation of Eve]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()