Portrait of Maria Salviati

Portrait of Maria Salviati is a c.1543-1545 oil on panel painting in the Uffizi, attributed to Pontormo.[1]

It was acquired by the Uffizi early in the 20th century as a work by Beccafumi. Soon afterwards Lányi identified it as a portrait of Cosimo I's mother Maria Salviati by Pontormo mentioned in Lives of the Artists by Vasari. Gamba found a preparatory drawing in the Uffizi's Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe (n. 6503F), but argued that the painting was produced by another painter from drawings by Pontormo, whereas he argues that Portrait of Maria Salviati with a Boy (Walters Art Gallery) is in fact the original autograph work.

Noting that the woman in the drawing seems older, in 1956 Luciano Berti argues that the painting on panel may be an idealised produced after its subject's death. Berti later argued against it being an autograph work and instead attributed it to a 16th-century Sienese artist.[2]