Portrait of Bartolomeo Panciatichi

The Portrait of Bartolomeo Panciatichi is a painting by the Italian artist Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Bronzino, completed around 1540.

Bartolomeo Panciatichi was a Florentine humanist and politician. His wife was also portrayed by Bronzino a few years later.

He was born in France, the illegitimate son of the merchant Bartolomeo, owner of the main Florentine trading company working in France, in Lyon. His father had financed the conquests of Louis

He was a friend of Jean de Vauzelles, abbot of Montrottier, who translated the religious works of Pietro Aretino into French; Panciatichi himself sent the first translated copies to the Italian author in Venice in 1539. In 1539 he moved to Florence, where, on January 20, 1541, he became a member of the Accademia degli Umidi. In 1545, Duke Cosimo I de' Medici appointed him consul of France. Here Panciatichi was attracted to the Protestant movement, and later brought to Florence several books that had been banned by the Catholic church.

He was one of 35 people arrested as heretics in Florence in December 1551-January 1552; Panciatichi was later released in exchange for ransom. After promising that he would no longer deal with religious matters, he subsequently restarted his political career under the aegis of the Medici: in 1567 he became a senator, in 1568 he was commissioner in Pisa and, in 1578, in Pistoia.