Though the identity of the woman in this portrait remains unknown, it is clear from her lavish costume and elegant pose that she is a member of the Florentine court.  Sumptuary laws at the time let only married ladies of the nobility to wear more than a single strand of pearls; given the sitter's four strands of opera-length pearls, she is not only married but also quite well-off.  Her elaborate black, yellow, and cream-colored embroidered dress with a delicate lace collar is of extraordinary richness and is certainly Spanish.  The influence of Hispanic style was prevalent at the Medici court in Florence given Cosimo I's wife was Eleonora of Toledo. 

The painting once belonged to the celebrated New York connoisseur, Thomas Jefferson Bryan (1802-1870) and later formed part of the collection of the New York Historical Society (see Provenance).  Bryan opened the Bryan Gallery of Christian Art in 1852, comprising his collection of some 500 paintings, including works attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Titian and Mantegna.  Much of the collection was transferred to the New York Historical Society in 1867 and the present work was among those eventually bequeathed to the institution upon Bryan’s death in 1870.

We are grateful to Carlo Falciani for proposing, based on photographs, the attribution to Jacopo Zucchi, who studied under Giorgio Vasari and later worked for Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici at his Palazzo Firenze.