Kristína Lotrinská s vnučkami - dcérami Cosima II.

The identities of the older woman and two children in the portrait are unknown. They are probably members of upper class northern Italian society from the last third of the 16th century. This claim is supported by their gowns and the setting. The seated woman is dressed austerely, but ceremonially. Despite the fact that the children are not even ten years old, they are also dressed ceremonially. The younger child is wearing a coral necklace, an apotropaic symbol. During the Roman era, it was believed that red coral had protective powers and jewelry made of it was given to children to protect them from the devil.

A person who was able to hide his emotions behind a mask was considered as a perfect courtier in the 16th century. This distinctive behavior led to the defining of the standards for official portraits which were established to reproduce the models, while expressing their reservation and distance. Thus they achieved a subtle balance between recorded reality and the ideal. Bronzino (1503–1572), the court painter of
Cosimo I de’ Medici, achieved perfect shapes and proportions.

These portraits do not exhibit such control of expression to connect them with the official portraits of the princely milieu and the tradition established by the portraits of Cosimo I de’ Medici, and his family and court. Firm drawing and three dimensional modeling are rather typical for the Florence milieu. Justus Sustermans (1597–1681), Matteo Confortini (1585–1641), Achille di Baldassari (?–?) či Francesco Mati (?–1649) are most frequently mentioned in connection with the portrait work from this milieu at the turn of the 17th century, particularly based on the designation of two Florentine portraits. 
 

Zuzana Ludiková ● LUDIKOVÁ, Zuzana - BURAN, Dušan. Talianska maľba = Italian Painting. Bratislava : Slovenská národná galéria, 2013. 242 strán. ISBN 9788080591748.