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The picture came to Florence from Urbino as one of the masterworks inherited by Vittoria della Rovere, wife of the Grand Duke Ferdinando II dei Medici since 1637 and descendant from the same family of the Pope Giulio II (1443-1513). The shape of this portrait is innovative as the figure is not presented just half-length but to the knees: to this kind of portrait shortly afterwards derived the State-portrait.
An identical portrait now exhibited at the National Gallery of London raised a difficult question to establish which of them is the original painted by Raphael or the second version the artist's workshop probably executed under his supervision. According to the recent investigations, the Uffizi version is from Raphael's workshop.
Restored in 1975.
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