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Madrid Tickets Thyssen Bornemisza Museum Portrait Of Giovanna Tornabuoni
Old master paintings in a gallery of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Ghirlandaio's Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni

Domenico Ghirlandaio's profile of a young Florentine wife, painted in 1489 to 1490, has long been the image the Thyssen-Bornemisza chooses to stand for its Old Master paintings.

Visit

The portrait hangs in the Permanent Collection: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum tickets

Location

Room 5, Level 2, among the Renaissance portraits. Paseo del Prado, 8, 28014 Madrid

Visit duration

The museum's own estimate for a full visit is about two and a half hours. Plan your visit

Key fact

Painted: 1489–1490, mixed media on panel, 77 x 49 cm

Giovanna degli Albizzi married Lorenzo Tornabuoni in 1486 and died two years later, aged nineteen. Domenico Ghirlandaio painted her in strict profile, hands folded, beside a niche holding a prayer book, a string of coral beads and a jewel. The panel passed through French and English collections and the hands of J. Pierpont Morgan before entering the Thyssen collection in 1935. The museum has used it for years as the face of its Old Masters.

Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni: key facts

Giovanna was born on 18 December 1468, the eighth daughter of Maso di Luca degli Albizzi and Caterina Soderini.

She married Lorenzo Tornabuoni in 1486, and their first child was born in October 1487.

She died in 1488, during her second pregnancy, and was buried at Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

The sitter is identified through a medal attributed to Niccolò Fiorentino that carries her likeness and name.

Ghirlandaio trained first as a goldsmith, and Vasari praised how quickly he caught a likeness.

The museum's inventory number for the panel is 158, and it came from the Morgan Library in New York.

In 2010 the museum built an exhibition around it, Ghirlandaio and Renaissance Florence.

What to look at in the portrait

Terracotta-walled galleries at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Start with the face. Ghirlandaio follows the Florentine habit of the time: idealised proportions, a long slender neck and an expression kept deliberately still, set against features that are clearly hers. Then read the objects in the niche as a description of her life. The jewel, with a dragon, two pearls and a ruby, and the pendant on a silk cord speak of her public role as a Tornabuoni wife. The prayer book and the coral beads, identified as a rosary, speak of her piety. The small inscribed label, the cartellino, quotes the Roman poet Martial. The museum translates its opening as “Art, if only you could reproduce the character and the spirit.”

Painted in life or after her death?

Villahermosa Palace, home of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

The cartellino ends with a date in Roman numerals, 1488, the year Giovanna died. That date sits at the centre of a long scholarly debate. Jan Lauts thought the panel came before Ghirlandaio's fresco of the Visitation in Santa Maria Novella and may have served as a model for it. John Pope-Hennessy placed it later, as a posthumous portrait, with the date recording her death. The museum's 2010 exhibition followed the second reading, describing a commission of around 1489 for a portrait to hang in the Palazzo Tornabuoni. Both views remain in the literature, so read the date as a likely memorial rather than settled fact.

Giovanna beyond the panel

Impressionist painting on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

The Visitation fresco in Florence

Ghirlandaio also painted Giovanna full length in the Visitation fresco of the Tornabuoni chapel in Santa Maria Novella, a commission from her father-in-law carried out in 1486 to 1490. Her pose, dress and accessories match the panel in Madrid closely, which is one reason scholars argue over which came first.

A gallery room inside the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

The medal in Washington

A medal attributed to Niccolò Fiorentino shows her likeness with her name, which is how the sitter is identified. It may have been made for her marriage in 1486. The medal is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and it is the key that links the woman in the Madrid panel to her name.

A landscape painting in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection

The years in New York

J. Pierpont Morgan bought the panel in 1907. A photograph from before 1913 shows it on an easel in the West Room of the Morgan Library, already in its present frame. It moved from the Morgan Library to the Thyssen collection in 1935.

Terracotta-walled galleries at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

The necklace that disappeared

Infrared study by the museum's conservators revealed a necklace under the paint that Ghirlandaio left out of the final design. The same research looked at the proportions of the composition through a golden-section analysis, and examined tiny samples taken from the paint layers.

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Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum Tickets: Permanent Collection

Highlights

Explore an extraordinary assortment of artworks spanning multiple centuries.

Wander through thematic floors featuring pieces from medieval times to modern avant-garde.

Enjoy the chance to visit anytime within a year with flexible ticket validity.

Admire pieces from prominent artists, including unique works representing different art movements.

Benefit from free entry for visitors under 18 and complimentary admission on Mondays during midday hours.

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Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen: Paseo del Arte Season Tickets

Highlights

Avoid lengthy queues with express access.

Visit three top museums located close to each other.

Save up to 20% compared to individual ticket purchases.

Experience some of the world’s finest art collections.

Flexible entry times and dates for your convenience.

Find Giovanna in Room 5

Room 5 on Level 2 gathers Renaissance portraits, and Giovanna's profile is easy to spot among them. Give it a few minutes: find the dragon on her jewel, the coral beads beside the prayer book and the Roman date on the label, then step back and look at how still the face is.

Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni: frequently asked questions

Where is the Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni?

It is in the permanent collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid, in Room 5 on Level 2.

Who painted the Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni?

Domenico Ghirlandaio, born Domenico Bigordi, painted it in 1489 to 1490 in mixed media on panel.

Who was Giovanna Tornabuoni?

Giovanna degli Albizzi was born in 1468 and married Lorenzo Tornabuoni in 1486. She died in 1488, aged nineteen, during her second pregnancy.

Is the portrait posthumous?

Probably, but it is debated. John Pope-Hennessy read it as posthumous, while Jan Lauts thought it was painted earlier, as a model for Ghirlandaio's Visitation fresco.

What does the inscription on the portrait say?

The small label quotes an epigram by Martial wishing that art could show character and spirit, followed by the date 1488 in Roman numerals.

How did the portrait reach the Thyssen collection?

After centuries with the Tornabuoni and Pandolfini families and later collectors, J. Pierpont Morgan bought it in 1907. It entered the Thyssen collection from the Morgan Library in 1935.

About this guide

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