Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere (1622–1694) (fig. 6.1) was an important patron of women artists and artisans at the Medici court during the Early Modern period, whose impact on humanist culture has only recently begun to be explored in depth. This essay examines the training and education she provided for two embroiderers and lace-makers, Caterina Angiola Pieroncini and another woman known to us only by the moniker ‘La Trottolina’, in the 1660s. Both ladies-in-waiting, the young women were sent to Paris to perfect their needlework skills in the new French styles. Having gained proficiency in France, both were repatriated to Florence. There they continued in service to the Grand Duchess alongside other dame (ladies-in-waiting), among them Maria Maddalena Caligari, who were trained by nuns at the city’s convents. All these women were dependent on the protection of the Grand Duchess, who did not fail to provide morally and materially for her young charges.

Lacemaking and embroidery had traditionally been the preserve of convents and female conservatories, and considered a creative activity believed to safeguard the girls’ virtue and honour. Moreover, the Italian product (especially Venetian gros point needle lace) (fig. 6.2) was considered of the highest quality and most prized by the elite of Europe. But in the middle of the seventeenth-century, with the political ascendancy of France, the Louis Quatorze style began to dominate European fashion, and new French styles, including bobbin and needle laces (point de France) (fig. 6.3), became more popular throughout the continent.