Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder

According to Giorgio Vasari this commemorative portrait of Cosimo the Elder, founder of the Medici fortune, was painted by Pontormo for Goro Gheri, secretary of Lorenzo de' Medici, duke of Urbino. After a period in the collection of Ottaviano de' Medici, it entered the ducal collection plausibly before the mid 1500's. The painting entered the Tribune in 1624. The laurel branch is a traditional Medici emblem. The verse from Virgil's Aeneid on the scroll alludes to the dynastic alternation between the two main branches of the family.