Portrait of A Lady Known As Esmeralda Brandini - Sitter and Author

Sitter and Author

The identification of the sitter is based on the old, but probably not original, inscription on the windowsill at the bottom of the picture Smeralda di M.Bandinelli Moglie di VI... Bandinelli, who has been identified as the grandmother of the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli. It is likely that the inscription was added at a later date, as the sculptor only took that surname in 1530.

On the evidence of the inscription, the portrait may be of Esmeralda (Smeralda) Donati Brandini, the wife of Viviano Brandini, mother of the prominent Florentine goldsmith Michelangelo de Viviano de Brandini of Gaiuole, and grandmother of the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (the son of Michelangelo and his noble wife Catarina, a daughter of Taddeo Ugolino). From archive documents it is known that in 1469 Smeralda was 30; her husband Viviano 38; their children Michelangelo 12, Giovanbatista 2, and Lucrezia 10.

It has been suggested that the portrait was painted by one of Botticelli's assistants during the 1470s. William Michael Rossetti said: "Leading critics will now have it that the portrait is not the work of Botticelli himself, but of someone for whom they have invented the name 'Amico di Sandro'". The V&A, however, still attributes the painting to Botticelli himself. It was once suspected that the portrait was one of Ignazio Hugford II's forgeries.

The art historian Julia Cartwright (1851–1924) refers to the sitter as the wife of Michele Bandinelli of Gaiuole, and attributes the portrait to an assistant of Botticelli. Although she names Smerelda and says that Michele was a talented goldsmith who had the Medici as clients for many years, is likely that Cartwright has confused Viviano with his son Michelangelo (Michele) because in 1475, the year of the tournament of La Giostra to which she refers, Michele was only 18 years old and his father was much better known.