ABSTRACT
Scipione Pulzone’s portrait of Cristina di Lorena, dating from 1590, shapes and projects the subject’s identity as Tuscany’s grand duchess by deploying striking references to Cristina’s husband, Ferdinando I and to the wealth of the Medici (Plate 2). When she arrived in Florence in 1589 as Ferdinando’s bride, Cristina represented both the past and the future of the Medici family. She was the granddaughter of Caterina de’ Medici, queen of France, of the line of Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent. Her marriage to the cardinal-turned-grand duke would ensure the continuation of the Medici line.
