LAST PORTRAIT CLOSEUP
Who else than Eleonora di Toledo herself, in THAT dress? Painted by Bronzino ca. 1545, and copied over and over again, in various lengths and qualities.
A glimpse of the earring and the hair net.
Wonderful jewellery! Is that a pointed Medici diamond? If so, it's huge! I love the metal "rose" securing the end of the drop shaped pearl of the pendant (seems like the same applies for her earrings).
Cool detail to have the grand pearls separated by smaller pearls. Makes them look bigger. And I love that partlet!
Shoulder details.
Probably the most famous part of the dress/painting....
The gem-studded gold girdle. The metal pieces are rather detailed!
The pearl tassel of the girdle. I love the details above it, the gem-decorated "globe" and the pearl.
This painting is surreal. I know exactly how this fabric would feel under my fingers, just by looking at the painting. The warp, the details, everything is there.
Sleeve/cuff details, with a blackworked chemise with "graphic" pattern. The golden "buttons" arrachning the sleeve panels are also viewable here, plus the rich trim going around the sleeves and the bodice.
As mentioned earlier, I spent a month in Rome this autumn (it's probably the 18th time I write that in my blog, isn't it...). This was a grand experience, specially since we had a study trip to Florence and Siena as well. We visited the Palazzo Vecchio, and I was thrilled to see some costume photos in the lobby (they were small and in a collage, but turned out OK when I photographed them). It turns out they have an "interactive cos-play" thing visitors can join (I don't know how often) where a pair dress up as Eleonora and Cosimo to receive visitors. The visitors can ask them questions about their lives, their clothes, their palace(s), their children etc. The Eleonora clothes looked really nice:
Eleonora with a doctor
Eleanora in her private Chapel, painted by Bronzino, in the palace
This dress is lovely! A syntese of her funeral dress and the Pisa one?
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