Portrait of Bianca Cappello

The year 1578 changed everything for Bianca Cappello. Born into a Venetian patrician family, she had eloped to Florence years earlier and become the mistress of Francesco de' Medici while he was still married. When his wife died, Francesco married Bianca, secretly at first and then in the open, and in 1579 she was crowned Grand Duchess of Tuscany. This portrait belongs to those years of her rise, painted for the court in the stiff, jewelled manner expected of a Medici consort. Her story ended abruptly. In October 1587 she and Francesco died within a day of each other at the villa of Poggio a Caiano, most likely of malaria, though poisoning was whispered for centuries afterward.