The portrait depicts a woman who is pregnant sitting with her left hand resting on her stomach. Paintings of pregnant women were unusual in the Renaissance period.
History
The work is mentioned for the first time in an early 18th-century inventory of Palazzo Pitti, as from an unknown artist. In 1813 it was transferred to the Grand Ducal wardrobe of the Uffizi, before returning again to Palazzo Pitti where it should replace several works robbed by the French. In the 1815 inventory it is attributed to Innocenzo da Imola, while in that of 1829 it is again listed as by an unknown painter. It was first ascribed to Raphael in 1839: it is now nearly unanimously considered by the Umbrian painter, with the exception of Italian 19th century art historian Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, who assigned it to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio.