
The hidden necklace

When we examined the infrared image of Ghirlandao’s Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni we discovered that hidden in the neck was a necklace of round beads is not part of the final design.
This led us to consider the hypothesis that Ghirlandaoio may have based this portrait commission on the medals that were made to mark Giovanna’s wedding to Lorenzo Tornabuoni, as she had died by the time he worked on it. He used the design on the medals as a guide when executing the portrait of Giovanna and modified a few final aspects such as the bead necklace, replacing it with a simple black cord.