Salviati never remarried; after her husband's death she adopted the somber garb of a novice, which is how she is remembered today as numerous late portraits show her attired in black and white.

She descended from two of Florence's most powerful banking families: the Salviati on her father's side, and the de' Medici on her mother's.

When her cousin, Alessandro de' Medici was assassinated in 1537, Maria used her family connections to get involved in the discussions to decide the next Duke of Florence.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the work was attributed to Piombo where the portrait looked different by the child being taken out and the single women identified as being Vittoria Colonna.

Most of them being handwritten recipe books that provided a basis for medical authority for women in order to navigate problems and pharmaceutical practices.

[5] Part of the book contained recipes for powders and pills to cure fever, elixirs to strengthen the body, and concoctions to help with infection.

With her medical knowledge, she partook in overseeing practices with Wet nursing and the selection process, which was uncommon at the time, for the Medici ducal couple's offspring.

[5] Over the years, she continued to oversee the Medici children with their health statuses mainly through Humorism reasoning and influences of celestial bodies.

[8] In the 1540s, Maria started to decline in health where the court physician, Andrea Pasquali, included symptoms such as recurring proctorrhagia, headaches, and rectal and perianal ulcers.

[8] To further back the evidence of Maria's effect with syphilis, scientists and archeologist exhumed her skeletal remains and performed studies.