Portrait of Bindo Altoviti

Jacopino del Conte trained in Florence under Andrea del Sarto. He moved to Rome, where he was influenced by Michelangelo and the Mannerism. Jacopino has evolved his complex and elegant mature style by the early 1540s. He is particularly renowned for his portraits of prominent Romans. Among these was Bindo Altoviti, under whom the family’s bank had by 1528 become the most powerful in Rome, managing accounts for the Vatican, Henry II of France and Cosimo I de’ Medici. Despite his anti-Medici political stance, he was appointed a Florentine consul and, in 1546, a senator of Florence. The statue Altoviti is pointing to is a figure of Fortitude holding onto a pillar, a symbol of strength. The storm in the background may be an allusion to the vicissitudes of life.