Portrait of Leonor Alvarez de Toledo
Florence 1529 - Florence 1586
The painting is first documented as forming part of the Borghese Collection in 1693. Inventories initially labelled it as an anonymous work in the style of Bronzino; only later was the attribution made to the workshop of the Florentine painter Francesco Brina.
It portrays Leonor Alvarez di Toledo, niece of the Grand Duchess of Tuscany of the same name. Here she is depicted in a seated position, as is suggested by the apple which is barely visible behind her. She wears a refined blouse with an elegantly embroidered collar; her elaborate hairstyle is further embellished with feathered ribbons. The image is enriched by the red curtain with a damask border, the earring, and the pearl necklace – perhaps an allusion to the woman’s virtue.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Salvator Rosa ( 70 x 59 x 6,5 cm)
Provenance
(?) Rome, Borghese, Collection 1693 (Inventory 1693, room I, no. 23; Della Pergola 1964); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 40. Purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1952 - Augusto Cecconi Principi, pulitura, alcune stuccature e verniciatura
Commentary
The provenance of this work is still unknown. Its presence in the Borghese Collection is documented only from 1693. The inventory of that year in fact lists a work in the first room of the Casino di Porta Pinciana: ‘next to it, beneath the cornice, a painting with the head of a woman with an old-fashioned collar, with a gilded frame, at no. 18. Uncertain’. Paola della Pergola (1964) identified this entry with the painting in question, even though the description could fit similar portraits.
At first, the canvas was believed to be in the ‘style of Titian’ (Inv. Fid. 1833); only in 1893 was it attributed to the Florentine painter Agnolo di Cosimo, called Bronzino (Venturi 1893). While Roberto Longhi (1928) was more cautious, ascribing it to the ‘school of Bronzino’, della Pergola (1959) distanced herself from both views and opted for an attribution to an anonymous painter of the 17th century. As Federico Zeri rightly noted (in an oral conversation reported in della Pergola 1959), a version of this work is held at the Museo Comunale di Montepulciano (Pinacoteca Crociani, inv. no. 73/1971), which in turn is a derivation of the full-length portrait preserved at the Stibbert Museum in Florence. The last-named work is attributed to Francesco Brina (Martini 2000), a student of Michele Tosini; it depicts Leonora Álvarez de Toledo (1555-1576), the niece of the grand duchess of Tuscany of the same name. Leonora was the wife of Pietro de’ Medici, who killed her out of jealousy.
The astounding similarity between the two portraits leaves no doubt as to the subject of the work in question. We can therefore ascribe this canvas to the circle of the Florentine Francesco Brina, painter of the portrait held at the Stibbert Museum, which was reproduced in several versions around the early 1570s (Martini 2000).
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 24;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 74;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 183;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, I, Roma 1955, p. 141, n. 250;
- P. della Pergola, L’Inventario Borghese del 1693 (I), in “Arte Antica e Moderna”, XXVI, 1964, p. 221;
- L. Martini, Museo Civico Pinacoteca Crociani, Siena 2000, pp. 124-125, 201 n. 95;
- K. Herrmann Fiore, Galleria Borghese Roma scopre un tesoro. Dalla pinacoteca ai depositi un museo che non ha più segreti, San Giuliano Milanese 2006, p. 30;
- V. Bramanti, Breve vita di Leonora di Toledo (1555-1576), Firenze 2007.
