Portrait of a Lady

In 1689 Violante Beatrice of Bavaria came to Florence to marry Ferdinando de' Medici, the grand prince who would die before he ever inherited Tuscany. For her own rooms she began commissioning portraits of the women most admired in Florence and Lucca. The court portraitist Antonio Franchi delivered more than 20 of them in 1690 and 1691 alone, and other hands, probably from his workshop, carried the set on into the following decade until it ran to 66 pictures. This canvas belongs to that group, which the gallery recognises by its size and format rather than by any signature. The women in it were collected because everyone at court knew exactly who they were. This one was never recorded. There is no inscription on the painted surface and no document behind her, only a small label on the back of the canvas with the number 145 written in pen.