Guardaroba Mediceo xxxx, f.37 left.
7 September 1640
An inventory of the Medici court’s guardaroba reveals the existence of a preciously unknown work by court artist Arcangela Paladini: a portrait of Grand Duke Cosimo II executed with elaborate techniques and costly materials. Here Arcangela is referred to as “Bramanti,” an Italianization of her husband’s Flemish surname, Broomans. Some of the terms employed here are rather obscure: tabì, or tabby in English, is a kind silk similar to taffeta. Tanè is a deep red color resembling the color of ruddy, tanned leather. The high value attributed to figurative textile works is indicated in the successive document below.
“Un quadro sul tabì tanè, tutto di 
ricamo al naturale, del Gran Duca Cosimo Secondo, armato sino a mezzo busto, con ori e argenti traversati, e lumeggiato di seta, con lavori al collare, e l’armatura d’argento tirato, e seta nera è il viso e Capelli, ricamato tutto con seta floscia, al naturale, fatto dall’ Arcangiola Bramanti, alto braccia 1 1/4 largo 3/4, da detto [Sua Altezza] ne 17 di suddetto [settembre].”
