Circle of Pietro Facchetti

Traditionally thought to have been painted by Alonso Sánchez Coello (1532–1588), according to the label on the reverse, this portrait aligns more in style to the work of Pietro Facchetti, a Mantuan artist working in Rome during the late 16th and early 17th century. Facchetti is known to have completed at least two portraits of Eleonora Orsini Sforza, the first commissioned by her mother-in-law, Constanza Nobili Sforza (1558–1617), the second commissioned in November 1605 by Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1562–1612) and completed in 1606. The latter portrait is listed in the 1626–27 inventory of the Gonzaga collection and it is probable that a number of copies derive from it.

Eleonora was the daughter of Isabella de’ Medici (daughter of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Duke of Florence) and Paolo Giordano I Orsini, Duke of Bracciano. Raised and educated alongside other members of the Medici family in Florence, Eleonora built a friendship with Maria de’ Medici, future Queen of France. In 1592 she left for Rome where she would marry Alessandro Sforza, Duke of Segni and Count of Santa Fiora.

¹ B. Furlotti, Le collezioni Gonzaga: il carteggio tra Roma e Mantova (1587–1612), Cinisello Balsamo 2003, p. 456, doc. 663 and p. 461, doc. 673.