Cosimo I de' Medici

In 1544, the year this engraving was made, Duke Cosimo I de' Medici had just conquered Florence and was set on ravaging Siena in his pursuit of the title Grand Duke of Tuscany. Here the unsettled and notoriously moody duke wears armor ornamented with symbols of the dynasty, certainly intended as a reminder of his strength and lineage. The beribboned diamond ring in the upper right corner was a Medicean emblem whose hardness connoted the durability of the family's reign, which lasted from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.