Rosanne said:
No date for the painting Huck?
The lady is handing to or taking a rose branch from the the man- which indicates to me this is a question of Love.
Is it a rose or could it be another flower?
I was just reading about the triumphal procession that followed her marriage to Phillip of Savoy (1503):
"John Palluat, head of the municipality, made a lengthy
speech according to the fashion of the time, full of
whimsical expressions, puns and witticisms, comparing
Princess Margaret's qualities with those of the flower
that bore her name."
What flower is this? Could it be the one in the picture?
The ducal procession included all kinds of allegorical displays from myth: Hercules, St. George, Jason and the Golden Fleece, Medea, and four girls in the turrets of a tower representing goodness, obedience, reason, and justice.
They lived in Bourg & in Turin along the route from France to Italy (and were keepers of the Veil of Turin). It was Duke Philibert (Phillip) who allowed the passage of French troops and King Louis through Turin on their way to Milan. The Duke (and his wife??) then accompanied the king to Milan. (Ah, the Milan-connection!)
http://www.archive.org/stream/firstgovernessof00tremuoft/firstgovernessof00tremuoft_djvu.txt
Added:
"As the widow of Duke Philibert, she com-
posed the famous motto which we find reproduced
everywhere on the tombs, walls, woodwork, and
stained-glass windows of the church at Brou :
FORTUNE . INFORTUNE . FORT . UNE.
And this was her last motto, which she kept to the
end. This enigmatical inscription has been variously
interpreted. Cornelius Agrippa, her panegyrist, and
Gropheus, Chevalier d'Honneur to the princess, who
composed a Latin poem in her praise in 1532, saw
no other meaning in this device than the resume of
her life ... a plaything of fortune ; and they explain
the word 'infortune' by the third person of the present
indicative of the verb 'infortuner,' Fortuna Infortunat
Fortiter Unam ' La fortune infortune (tries, per-
secutes) fort une femme.' Guichenon adopts this
version and says the princess composed her device
Ho show that she had been much persecuted by
fortune, having been repudiated by Charles VIIL, and
having lost both her husbands, the Prince of Castile,
and the Duke of Savoy."