Trad✅itionally 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 kno🔴wn 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 mar🎐ry 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 200𓆉3, ✱p. 456, doc. 663 and p. 461, doc. 673.