The sitter is depicted wearing a white chemise with blackwork embroidery around the neck, collar and front opening. In addition, there are vague traces of blackwork decoration around the chemise sleeve cuffs. The chemise has been gathered and smocked around the neck opening. The pattern around the neck and front opening is in a stylised sun burst form and may possibly be a woven band. Furthermore there are two different types of black patterns used on the deep, upright collar, namely a stylised floral form on the outside and a small, simple trellis work design on the inside of the collar. It is likely that the collar was made of two layers of cloth, each embroidered with a different pattern worked in black, which were then sewn together in order to create this effect.
The sitter is also depicted wearing an elaborate, decorative headband, but it is not clear if the artist was intending to represent a woven or an embroidered band. There is some debate as to whether the sitter’s clothes are northern Italian or Florentine in origin. No definitive conclusion appears to have been reached. The painting came into the Royal Collection during the period of Charles I (1625-1649) and was probably purchased from the Gonzaga collection.
Source: WHITAKER, Lucy (2007). The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection: Renaissance and Baroque, London: Royal Collection Publications.
Royal Collection online catalogue (retrieved 14 August 2016).
GVE