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Painting features ‘oldest watch’
Art experts think they may have found the world’s oldest painting to feature an image of a watch.
The Science Museum is investigating the 450-year-old portrait, thought to be of Cosimo I de Medici, Duke of Florence, holding a golden timepiece.
Curators have sent their findings to renaissance experts at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, and are awaiting their comments.
The painting is being shown as part of the museum’s Measuring Time gallery.
Cosimo I de’ Medici (June 12, 1519 – April 21, 1574) was Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574, reigning as the first Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569
Among his many accomplishments was the creation of the Uffizi, originally intended to house the government, now one of the world’s great art galleries. He also finished the Pitti Palace as a home for the Medici and created the magnificent Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti. He was a great patron of the arts, supporting, among others, Vasari, Cellini, Pontormo, Bronzino, the architect Lanci, and the historians Scipione Ammirato and Benedetto Varchi.
A large bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I by Giambologna, erected in 1598, still stands today in the Piazza della Signoria, the main square of Florence.
Cosimo was also an enthusiast of alchemy, a passion he had inherited from his grandmother Caterina Sforza.
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