The swaddled Prince of Urbino in the cradle

In 1605 the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria II della Rovere, was past 50 and still without a son to follow him. When a boy finally arrived that May, named Federico Ubaldo, the relief was immense, and the court painter Alessandro Vitali was set to record him at once, tightly swaddled in his cradle like a small bound package. Vitali had trained under Federico Barocci, the great painter of Urbino, and he gives the infant the careful, tender attention usually reserved for grown sitters. The hope in the picture did not last. Federico Ubaldo died at 18, the ducal line ended, and Urbino passed to the Papal States. Through the prince's own daughter, who married into the Medici, the family's paintings eventually came to Florence, which is how this cradle portrait reached the Uffizi.