Lot 101
Property of a Private Collector
Alessandro Allori
Florence 1535 - 1607
Portrait of either Eleonora (“Dianora”) di Toledo de' Medici or Virginia de' Medici
oil on copper
copper: 6⅝ by 5⅛ in.; 16.8 by 13.0 cm.
framed: 11⅛ by 9½ in.; 28.3 by 24.1 cm.
Condition Report
Provenance
Acquired by the present collector, 2012.
Literature
C. Beuzelin, in Florence, Portraits à la cour des Médicis, exhibition catalogue, C. Falciani (ed.), Paris 2015, p. 135, cat. no. 23, reproduced in color (as Dianora di Toledo de Medici).
Exhibited
Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Florence, Portraits à la cour des Médicis, 11 September 2015 - 25 January 2016, no. 23.
Catalogue note
The celebrated sixteenth-century court portraitist Alessandro Allori here portrays an elegant Florentine noblewoman in sumptuous finery, depicted with such verve as to render the portrait itself a precious objet de vertu. Each item she wears—from the gold-trimmed sheer partlet and cap-sleeve overdress, to the ample pearls and embroidered silk gown itself—is a luxurious article of craftsmanship. Allori captures with flair the sheen of the varied textures, which glisten on the copper support, making the portrait both a depiction and object of visual and material splendor.
Shown with alluring almond-shaped eyes and voluminous auburn hair, the sitter has been identified as either Eleonora (“Dianora”) di Toledo the Younger (later de' Medici) (1553-1576) or Virginia de' Medici (1568-1615). Dianora was the only daughter of Don Garzia di Toledo and Vittoria d’Ascanio Colonna. Dianora’s father was a Spanish nobleman and brother of Eleonora di Toledo, who in 1539 became Duchess of Florence when she married Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici; Dianora’s mother was niece of the renowned Roman poet, Vittoria Colonna. Born in Florence, Dianora was raised there by her aunt (and namesake) and uncle, who educated her within the court milieu.1 Virginia was the daughter of Duke Cosimo and his second wife, Camilla Martelli, his longtime lover. Born out of wedlock, Virginia was only legitimized following her parents' wedding in 1570; in 1586, she married Cesare d'Este and moved from Florence to Modena.
We are grateful to Professor Carlo Falciani for endorsing the attribution to Alessandro Allori and to Adriana Concin for her assistance cataloguing this work.
1 On Dianora’s life and death at the hands of her husband, Pietro de' Medici (1554-1604), the youngest son of Eleonora and Cosimo, see G. Langdon, Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal from the Court of Duke Cosimo I, Toronto 2006, pp. 171-193.