6

The portrait of Bianca Cappello, painted by Scipione Pulzone called Gaetano,
entered the imperial collections thanks to the archduke Leopold Wilhelm, albeit
under a false name, being described in the archduke’s inventory as a portrait of
a lady by an unknown Italian painter. It was subsequently identified in the

18th
century as Christine Müller, wife of the painter Bartholomeus Spranger, painted
by himself and displayed as a pendant to his self-portrait. Only in the middle of
last century was the face of the grand duchess of Tuscany Bianca Cappello recognised,
 painted by Scipione Pulzone, an artist born in Gaeta who, because of
his great skill, was one of the most sought after portraitists in late Renaissance
Italy.

Behind this story, which is as simple as it is stimulating from a historical-artistic
 point of view - overturning the traditional opinion of a »Northern« painting,
marked by the precise and naturalist rendering of reality, as opposed to the freer
and looser approach of Italian painting - lies a weft of elopements, betrayals,
court intrigues, plots, spying and mythography. This weft gradually unfolded, as
in a palimpsest, as reconstruction of the painting’s history and analysis of the
painted surface proceeded.

Thanks to the results of the scientific analysis made to verify the information
given in the documentary testimonies, that which the specialist literature has up
until now thought only probable can now be confirmed. The Kunsthistorisches
Museum’s portrait is certainly that commissioned from the painter by Bianca
Cappello for her friend and compatriot Francesco Bembo in

1585.1

Point of View #12
Francesca Del Torre Scheuch

The Portrait of Bianca Cappello by Scipione Pulzone
A Portrait Makes a Career

Fig. 2: Scipione Pulzone, Bianca Cappello,
detail with carnation