Portrait of Battista Sforza

Battista Sforza died in the summer of 1472, only about 26, not long after she'd finally given the lord of Urbino the male heir he'd waited years for. This profile was very likely painted after her death, and that changes how you read it. The strict sideways pose comes straight from ancient coins and medals, a way of fixing a ruler's likeness for good. Her skin is left almost white, partly a court fashion for noblewomen, partly, perhaps, a quiet nod to the fact that she was already gone. Behind her stretches the real countryside of the Marche, the land she and Federico governed. She faces him across the hinge of the panel, the two of them turned to each other for good. On the back, Piero painted her riding in triumph in a little chariot drawn by unicorns, the old sign of chastity, with a Latin verse praising a woman who kept her modesty in good fortune.