Portrait of Bia de' Medici

Early in 1542 a small girl in the Medici household in Florence fell ill and, within a few weeks, died. She was about six, the daughter of Duke Cosimo I from before his marriage, and after her death he had his court painter Agnolo Bronzino paint her. Bronzino set her against a plain blue ground in pale satin and pearls, her skin cool and luminous, exactly as he rendered the living members of the family. Around her neck hangs a gold medal showing her father in profile, copied from a portrait by Pontormo. The child's name was Bia. The earliest record of the picture is a Medici wardrobe inventory of 1553.