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A pair of late seventeenth century appliqué and painted silk panels worked with a pattern of alternating reverse scrolling foliate tendrils and with alternate scrolls applied with a blazon of the Sforza family arms, a crowned snake from which a small human figure emanates. Worked in appliqué yellow painted silk with couched green thread outlines on a burnt umber ground.
Framed and glazed.
Provenance: The 6th Earl of Rosebery and his family.
The Sforza family ruled the duchy of Milan from 1450-1535. Rising from peasant origins, the Sforzas became condottieri (mercenary leaders employed by Italian city-states from the late Middle Ages until the mid-sixteenth century) and used this military position to become the rulers of Milan. Similar to the de Medici family in Florence in their use of personal power, the Sforza’s differed in that they were warriors, not bankers.