Portrait of Christine of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

In 1589 a French princess arrived in Florence to a wedding so lavish the city talked about it for years. Christine of Lorraine was a granddaughter of Catherine de' Medici, raised at the French court, and her marriage to Ferdinando I de' Medici bound Tuscany to France. A year later Scipione Pulzone, a portraitist much in demand in Rome, painted this official likeness of the new grand duchess for the Medici court gallery. Look at the crown set beside her, a real object made for the family by the goldsmith Jacques Bylivelt. Pulzone records the lace, the jewels and the stiff court dress with a jeweller's patience, the exact, flattering image a ruling house wanted the world to keep.