Portrait of Lucrezia Tornabuoni, circa 1475, attributed to Domenico Ghirlandaio
Lucrezia Tornabuoni was born in Florence to parents from two of the most powerful families in 15th-century Italy, the Tornabuoni and the Guicciardini, and married into a third, the Medici. Her husband, Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, was the son of Cosimo, the de facto ruler of Florence, and she would become mother to Lorenzo ‘the Magnificent’ (and at least five other children); grandmother to two future popes, Leo X and Clement VII; and greatgrandmother to Catherine de’ Medici, Queen of France.