Livia Colonna

The picture has always carried the name of Livia Colonna, a Roman noblewoman who died in the early 1550s. The Prado dates the canvas to 1570 to 1572, which leaves a gap of nearly 20 years, and the identification of the sitter has never been settled. What is documented is the painting's life in Madrid. It hangs in the royal Alcázar by 1636, in the fourth room, the one with the fountain, then in the corridor of the Madonna in 1686, then in another corridor in 1700 as number 37. In 1734 it appears on the list of paintings carried out to the Armoury, the year the Alcázar burned.