1530, Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo), The Ten Thousand Martyrs -- Uffizi Gallery (Florence)
From the museum label: The Roman Emperor ordered 10,000 soldiers to be slain on Mount Ararat in Armenia after they converted to Christianity. The picture, commissioned from Jacopo Pontormo who had previously painted another panel with the same subject for the Spedale degli Innocenti (now in the Galleria Palatina in the Pitti Palace), was actually painted by his pupil Bronzino. In this smaller version with variants, the master's influence is still apparent in the composition of the scene and in the contorted expressions of some of the figures, but Bronzino's hand shines through in the thick brushwork and the figures' solidity.
1530, Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo), The Ten Thousand Martyrs -- Uffizi Gallery (Florence)
From the museum label: The Roman Emperor ordered 10,000 soldiers to be slain on Mount Ararat in Armenia after they converted to Christianity. The picture, commissioned from Jacopo Pontormo who had previously painted another panel with the same subject for the Spedale degli Innocenti (now in the Galleria Palatina in the Pitti Palace), was actually painted by his pupil Bronzino. In this smaller version with variants, the master's influence is still apparent in the composition of the scene and in the contorted expressions of some of the figures, but Bronzino's hand shines through in the thick brushwork and the figures' solidity.