JUST A FAMILY PORTRAIT...

[operafantomet]

What would you have said if say the Spanish royal family commissioned a painting with family members depicted as saints? Sacrilegious? Blasphemous? Awesome? Tasteless? Pious? I'm sure all these thoughts rushed through the heads of the citizens of Florence when the Medici family presented this painting to the world:

Comments

[starlightmasque]

What a strange painting! I think the "photo bomb" portaits are my favorite, you know, the religious ones with the painting's benefactors just awkwardly standing there in their modern costume. Those always make me laugh a little. Did you read the book "Murger of a Medici Princess?" I didn't know anything about Isabella before I read that.

[operafantomet]

Hahaha, I agree! It's like the donors wanted to stand out from the motif and be noticed.

I know that book you mention well, though I've never read it. But her history is quite tragic. Of all the Medici children she is the one I like the most. She, and Ferdinando. Apparently those two were close too. I read a similar book, though, called "Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal in the Court of Duke Cosimo I". It has a chapter about Isabella, as well as one about Dianora, and link these two together. If you're interested in the subject and haven't read that book, I definitely recommend it!