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Together with her brother Charles V, Mary of Hungary (1505-1558) was Leone Leoni's most important patron at the imperial court. Leoni and Mary, governor of the Low Countries, met on three occasions: in Brussels in 1549, in Augsburg three years later, and again in Brussels in 1556. The present bronze, together with a further nine, full-length figures, was commissioned in 1549 for the dynastic gallery that Mary had devised for her palace at Binche. In fact, Leoni delayed the execution of the project until at least 1553.
The present bronze was delivered to Mary in Brussels in 1556, two years after French troops had destroyed Binche, as a consequence of which it never occupied the position for which it was intended. That same year Mary moved to Spain where she died in 1558. The sculptures followed her, accompanied by Pompeo Leoni, who moved to Madrid in 1556 in order to complete them, which explains the presence of his signature and the date of 1564 on the base.
Mary is depicted standing, dressed as a widow and with her joined hands holding a missal. The long ribbons of her headdress, tied at the back of her head and bearing a cross motif at each end, fall forwards in the manner of a stole. Leoni produced a preparatory terracotta bust for the present work, executed during his first meeting with Mary in Brussels in 1549, and which would also serve as the model for two further busts of this sitter, in marble (Museo del Prado, Madrid) and bronze (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).
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