Description: A full-length portrait of Lucrezia, the daughter of Niccolò di Sinibaldo Gaddi, standing in the garden of the Palazzo Gaddi with a macaw and a jerboa, with inscription 'Claudia dei Medici/Nata.nel. 1604 Morta. 1648/Dipinta da Cristofano Allori' (on the reverse) Painted ca. 1565. oil on poplar panel, 116x90,5 cm Exhibited: -Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa, Gedenkmuseum Phillimore Ives, 1951-1961, no. 6, as: Cristofano Allori (1577-1621). -Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, 'Florence, Portraits à la cour des Médicis, 11 September 2015-25 January 2016, no. 35, as: Santi di Tito. Literature: -Gedenkmuseum Phillimore Ives, 'Geillustreerde Katalogus van de Phillimore Versameling', Stellenbosch 1951, p. 12, no. 6, ill. p. 49, as: Cristofano Allori. -C. De Benedicts, 'Altari committenza: Episodi a Firenze nell'età della Controriforma', Florence 1996, pp. 11, 12, 17, note. 12. -V. Arrighi, 'Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Vol. LI, Rome 1998, pp. 164-165. -P. Costamagna and A. Chong, 'Raphael, Cellini & a Renaissance Banker: the patronage of Bindo Altoviti', Boston 2003, p. 345, ill. p. 185, as: Santi di Tito. -C. Acidini-Luchinat, 'Tre madrigali e alcune osservazioni sulla Gaddi nella chiesa di Santa Maria Novella' in 'Giovanni Antonio Dosio da San Gimignano architetto e scultor fiorentino tra Roma, Firenze e Napoli', Florence 2011, pp. 333-334. -E. Barletti and A. Morrogh, 'La casa dell'orto di Niccolò Gaddi', in 'Giovanni Antonio Dosio da San Gimignano architetto e scultor fiorentino tra Roma, Firenze e Napoli', Florence 2011, pp. 471, 486-488, ill. p. 487. -A.F., in C. Falciani et al., 'Florence. Portraits à la Cour des Médicis, Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André', Paris 2015, pp. 173, 179, 180 and 194, no. 35, ill. pp. 168 and 178. Provenance: -Collection Lady Marion Phillimore, wife of 2nd Lord Pillimore, Coppid Hall, Oxfordshire, as: Cristofano Allori. -By whom given in 1950 in honour of her late husband and mother Mrs. Ives to the Gedenkmuseum Phillimore Ives, Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa. -The donation annulled in 1961 under the terms of the deed of the gift when the Union of South Africa left the British Commonwealth, and with the entire collection returned to the UK and subsequently sold. -Acquired by Saam en Lily Nijstad, The Hague, by 1984. Thence by inheritance in the collection of the present owner. Santi di Tito painted this portrait around the year 1565, only just after he had returned back to Florence from a short stay in Rome. Having been the pupil of famous Florentine mannerist painter Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), Di Tito already learned a lot from one of the most renowned portraiture artists of his time. Still his visit to Rome was essential in learning a new style of portraiture, the state portrait, a type which he furtherly developed in Florence. The sitter has been identified as Lucrezia Gaddi (1559-1569), the daughter of Niccolò Gaddi (1537-1591) the Florentine ambassador to Mantua and later senator. She is shown aged around five years old and wears a blue gown with a partlet buttoned at the front. This fashion trend was introduced by women from the Spanish court in the 1550's and soon became very popular among the Florentine high society. The setting of the painting shows us the famous garden of the Palazzo Gaddi, located in the centre of busy renaissance Florence. In the upper right part of the painting, one can see the campanile's pinnacle of the Santa Maria Novella. In this church Lucrezia was to be burried following her early death in 1569. Following the trends in aristocratic life of the sixteenth century, the garden of the Gaddi's was filled with exotic animals. The macaw was a discovery from the New World and the Jerboa came from the Egyptian desert. The strange and intriguing new animals in combination with sculptures, architecture and plants want to show the spectator the richness and prestige of the Gaddi family. Simona Lecchini Giovannoni was the first to suggest that this portrait might be painted by Santi di Tito (1985, in a letter to Mr. Nijstad). In the past the painting was alligned with other artists of the Bronzino School like Cristofano Allori (1577-1621) and his father Alessandro Allori (1535-1607). Please compare this painting to a portrait of Emilia Gaddi by Santi di Tito, also exhibited in Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, 'Florence, Portraits à la cour des Médicis, 11 September 2015-25 January 2016, no. 36.