Burlesque Connotations in the Pictorial Language in Bronzino's Poetry

Agnolo di Cosimo, better known as Bronzino, was not only one of the most celebrated painters at the court of Cosimo I in Florence, but also a brilliant poet as Vasari reminds us in his Vite. Bronzino was the author of a Petrarchean 'canzoniere', but he was also an outstanding burlesque poet, in the tradition of Burchiello and Berni. He was the author of sonnets, especially 'sonetti caudati' which we know from Burchiello, and 'capitoli' from Berni, where burlesque language, characterised by its erotic puns and double meanings, interacts with the pictorial field in a strikingly original way. This interaction hinges on Bronzino's use of pictorial discourse, either simply by using well known burlesque symbols and metaphors - the paint brush, colours, bells, or the shapes of mosquitoes, carrots and cheese… - or, in more subtle ways, by using burlesque topoi to face more serious and complex aesthetic issues.