Retrato de Galeazzo Maria Sforza

In March 1471 the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, rode into Florence on a state visit to shore up his alliance with Lorenzo de' Medici. Chroniclers noted the blue brocade sewn with lilies that he wore entering the city, and that is the costume Piero del Pollaiuolo fixed in this profile portrait. The strict side view was the fashionable way to show a ruler then, borrowed from the faces on ancient coins. The panel later hung in Lorenzo's own chamber in the Medici palace, probably paired with a portrait of another prince. Sforza had a reputation for cruelty, and five years after he posed in his lily-covered brocade he was stabbed to death in a Milan church on a saint's feast day.