Portrait of Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy

Christine of France was born in Paris in February 1606, and she is four or five in this small canvas. Pourbus painted a set of these half-lengths of the royal children after he moved to Paris, and they appear to have gone to Florence as presents for the queen's Medici relatives. On her 13th birthday, in February 1619, Christine was married to Victor Amadeus, the heir to Savoy. She outlived him by 26 years. From his death in 1637 she governed Savoy as regent, first for one small son and then for another, fought off her husband's brothers through four years of civil war in Piedmont, and was still in charge when she died in 1663. Turin called her Madama Reale. The canvas is about 51 centimetres tall and has only been on show in the gallery since 1988.