Elisabeth Renata of Lorraine, Duchess of Bavaria

This portrait travels on a marriage. Elisabeth of Lorraine was painted toward 1590 by a hand trained in the Flemish manner, all careful lace and steady gaze. In 1595 she married Maximilian of Bavaria and became duchess there, one more thread in the Catholic dynastic web of the age. The reason her face reached Florence lies with her sister: Christina of Lorraine had married Ferdinando de' Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, a few years earlier, and portraits moved between allied families as naturally as letters. So a young woman from the court of Lorraine, bound for Munich, ended up hanging in the Medici collection because of who her sister married. The costume alone dates her, the stiff ruff and jewelled bodice of a princess presented for inspection.