Carlo Orsi-Trinity Fine Art reveals the history of a Baroque masterpiece by Foggini

This marble portrait bust of 1687 portrays Marguerite Louise of Orléans, wife of Cosimo III de’ Medici, the enfant terrible of the Medici dynasty. A free-spirited woman, Marguerite Louise, although she bore Cosimo three heirs, never submitted emotionally to the marriage, and came to despise her husband, his family and the Court in Florence, and made Cosimo’s life miserable. Eventually she obtained a separation, returned to France, and lived as she pleased, bringing even her cousin King Louis XIV to despair at her outrageous behaviour. The marble bust is offered by Carlo Orsi-Trinity Fine Art, Stand 379, at TEFAF Maastricht with several fresh discoveries: previously unpublished documents clarifying that it was commissioned by the Medici, that it is a fully autograph work by Giovanni Battista Foggini (Florence 1652-1725), a contention borne out by specific payments made to the sculptor, and that it wa