ABSTRACT
The fictional exchange between Allori and Bronzino makes explicit a number of characteristics of the term disegno as it was used in the second half of the sixteenth century that qualify it as a 'keyword' in the sense described by Raymond Williams. The list of synonyms and related terms with which disegno is associated in Renaissance texts is far more expansive than those provided in dictionary definitions. Disegno was a Renaissance keyword, and therefore, because it was modern, implicated in the rise of the vernacular and difficult to translate into other languages and cultures that were catching up with Italian. Studying disegno as a concept has its uses, as a heuristic procedure, since it offers the means for a synthesis of developments in the period. In fact, strange as it may seem, Bandinelli was a source for both the theory of disegno as universal design, as later expounded by Zuccaro, and as superficial line as described by Allori.
