Portrait of Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

The woman in this official portrait had not set foot in Tuscany for almost 50 years when it was painted. Marguerite Louise d'Orléans was a French princess, a cousin of Louis XIV, married to Cosimo III in 1661 to tie Florence to the French crown. The marriage was wretched from the start. In 1675 she left Tuscany for good and settled in a convent near Paris, keeping her title of grand duchess while living out her life in France, where she died in 1721. This likeness is dated about 1723, so it was made after her death, for the Medici's own gallery of the ruling house. It records her as grand duchess of Tuscany, a role she had spent most of her life avoiding. Her three children were the last of the Medici to rule Florence.