Portrait of Francesco and Caterina de' Medici as Children

The inscription across the top of this canvas does the dating for us. It names the two children of Ferdinando I, grand duke of Tuscany, and gives their ages, Francesco in his second year and Caterina in her third, which puts the picture in 1596. Caterina had been born three years earlier in Palazzo Pitti, the building the portrait hangs in today.

Francesco was made Prince of Capestrano and died at 20, three days after his birthday. Caterina married the Duke of Mantua, was sent to govern Siena in 1627, and died there two years later.

For a long time nobody knew whose hand this was. A restoration in 1972 uncovered Cristofano Allori's signature in the lower right corner. He was 19 when he painted it, still working in his father's shop.