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This portrait must depict the Duke of Mantua's daughter, Margherita, to judge from Pourbus's full-length portrait of her dated 1605 in the Uffizi, Florence. Margherita Gonzaga (1591-1632) was the eldest daughter of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and Eleonora de' Medici (sister of Marie de' Medici). In 1606 she married Henry of Lorraine, duc de Bar.
Pourbus was court painter of Archduke Albert in Brussels when in 1600 he went to Italy at the invitation of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. In this period Rubens also worked for Vincenzo Gonzaga, but he eagerly left the painting of formal portraits and a gallery of "beauties" to Pourbus, who in 1611 became Maria de' Medici's court painter in Paris.
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