Portrait of Clelia Farnese, bust-length,
oil on canvas, 22.4 x 17.9 cm, framed

This refined portrait, represents the Duchess Clelia Farnese (1557–1613), the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III. It is said that her father proclaimed he had achieved three truly beautiful things in his life: the church of Il Gesù in Rome; the Farnese Palace at Caprarola and his dearly beloved daughter Clelia.

Clelia was educated at the court of Urbino by her aunt, Duchess Vittoria Farnese and she was promised in marriage at the age of nine to the sixteen-year-old Giovan Giorgio Cesarini. Celebrated by Roman society for her grace and exceptional beauty, Torquato Tasso dedicated a sonnet to her. After being left a widow in 1585 Clelia began a relationship with Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici. Owing to this and defamatory campaigns against her, Clelia was forced to abandon Rome to marry Marco Pio, Count of Sassuolo.

Clelia Farnese’s beauty was immortalised by a number of great painters of the age. Among these, of note are her portrait by Jacopo Zucchi conserved in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome, and that by Scipione Pulzone (Dorotheum, 22 October 2019, lot 15).