Paper short abstract:

My paper will explore a series of depictions of the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria (1466-1560) in which he is portrayed in the guise of Neptune. I will analyse the choice of heroic disguise and the iconography of Neptune in the context of 16th century redefinition of power and propaganda in Italian states.

Paper long abstract:

During the sixteenth century, the Italian political landscape went through a dramatic transformation, and new powers emerged. The new status quo, which was often regarded with trepidation by the foreign powers involved in the Italian Wars, required the support of a strong visual message, which would stress the notion of the new ruler's 'divine' right to govern thanks to his exceptional virtues. In the context of political propaganda, heroic (or 'allegorical') portraiture, in which the sitter is depicted in guise of a mythological, historical or religious character, acquired a new importance not only in domestic affairs, but also on the European stage. My current doctoral work is the first exploration of how this genre sprang from the cultural features of sixteenth-century Italy, for instance how it related to the new notions of social dissimulation and courtly performance, how it derived its language from emblematic literature and medals and, most importantly, how its visual rhetoric served the agenda of Italian political regimes, like the one in Genoa, or the Medici one in Florence. My paper will draw on my current work on Italian heroic portraits, and my considerations will focus principally, but not exclusively, on a case-study which epitomizes this myth-making process in a variety of artistic media: the series of medals and plaquettes by Leone Leoni depicting the admiral Andrea Doria as Neptune, an iconography which was reprised by Agnolo Bronzino in a panel portrait destined to the Museo Gioviano, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera.