page_title: Eleanor of Toledo
section_title: Patronage of Arts
hierarchical_section_title: Eleanor of Toledo / Duchess of Florence / Patronage of Arts
caption_attribution_description: Español: Florencia, Palazzo Vecchio. Capilla de Leonor de Toledo.
context_page_description: Eleanor of Toledo, born Doña Leonor Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, was a Spanish noblewoman and Duchess of Florence as the first wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. A keen businesswoman, she financed many of her husband's political campaigns and important buildings like the Pitti Palace. She ruled as regent of Florence during his frequent absences and founded many Jesuit churches. She is credited with being the first modern first lady or consort.
context_section_description: Like her husband, Eleanor was a notable patron to many of the most artists of the age like Agnolo Bronzino, Giorgio Vasari, and Niccolò Tribolo and very notable buildings still standing today.
  Eleanor's private chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio was decorated by Bronzino. From 1559 to 1564, she commissioned Vasari to make a new fresco in her apartments about famous women whose, in his words, actions have equalled or surpassed men, such as Queen Esther, Penelope, and Florentine heroine Gualdrada. It is thought that the redecorations were a concerted effort on the middle age Eleanor's part to reshape her public persona away from fecundity and towards other her virtues - wisdom, valour and prudence.
  In the earlier part of her marriage, the Medici family lived in Florence's Via Larga at what is now the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi and later at the Palazzo Vecchio. Raised in the luxurious courts of Naples, Eleanor purchased the Pitti Palace across the Arno river in 1549 as a summer retreat for the Medici. In 1550, she commissioned and supervised Tribolo to create the Pitti's famous Boboli Gardens, which possess openness and expansive view unconventional for its time. The gardens were very lavish and no access was allowed to anyone outside the immediate Medici.
  Part of Eleanor's final will and testament was the creation and funding of the prestigious but exclusive convent Santissima Concezione, the daughter house of one of her favorite convents, Le Murate. It was built around the Sale del Papa of the prominent Dominican monastery Santa Maria Novella, which once functioned as quarters for visiting popes.
caption: Detail of a Bronzino fresco in the Cappella di Eleonora.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 600D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2015:07:22 22:03:54", "Image ExifOffset": "168", "EXIF ExposureTime": "2/5", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:07:22 22:03:54", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:07:22 22:03:54", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "11/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4679/1313", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5184", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "97379/17", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "331079/57", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 55, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 III", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "000016c747"}