Pope Leo X
by BRONZINO, Agnolo, Oil on tin, 15 x 12 cm
This close-up executed by the workshop of Bronzino is a copy of Raphael’s much-copied portrait in the Uffizi of the erudite and pleasure-loving Medici pontiff who restored his family to power in 1512. Leo X reigned during a dramatic time in the Roman Catholic Church: in October 1517, a young Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed his challenge to a church door in Wittenberg.