Portrait of Battista Sforza, Duchess of Urbino

The original, tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cm, is in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. It forms the left half of a dyptich, the counterpart of which portrays Battista's spouse Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. At the rear of the two portrait panels allegorical triumphs are depicted, celebrating the virtues of the ducal couple. Those triumphal images are inscribed with Latin verses, of which the one of Battista, unlike Federico's, is written in the past tense. This has led to the assumption that the duchess had died already when Piero painted her portrait. Her death in 1472 at the age of 26 might have been the occasion for Federico to order a commemorative portrait of his wife and one of himself. If so, the fact that Battista could not pose for the painter, could be an explanation for the stiffness and the lack of expression of the sitter.

See colour illustration