A late fifteenth century panel painting shows the half-bust silhouette of a young woman with greenish eyes, a distinctive nose and brown hair neatly arranged into headgear ending with a coazzone. She is wearing a brocaded gamurra with Sforza emblems. Above the ear, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, and pearls are fitted in a pendant in the shape of a brush bordered by a banderole inscribed with a motto merito et tempore [Fig. I.1]. The design of this jewel was the impresa of Ludovico Sforza (1452–1508), known as the Moor.

The woman likely represents Ludovico's niece Bianca Maria, born on 5 April 1472, the daughter of the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444–1476). After her father's assassination on 26 December 1476, she and her brother, the new Duke Gian Galeazzo (1469–1494), fell under the wily tutelage of Ludovico, who de facto ruled as the Duchy's Regent. After Gian Galeazzo's mysterious death on 21 October 1494, Ludovico assumed formal control, which he lost in 1499, when the French invaded the principality. Meanwhile, Bianca Maria would come close three times to wearing the bridal dress. Then, shortly before she lost her brother, her uncle succeeded in sealing her union with none other than the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I (1459–1519), whom she married on 30 November 1493.