[2] The work was in the Uffizi Gallery until 1928, when it was exchanged for two 13th century panels and a portrait thought to be of Philip, Duke of Parma by Giuseppe Baldrighi and later recognized as a self-portrait.

It is mentioned in the Uffizi inventories of 1704 and 1890, being listed in the latter as "Portrait of a Young Woman with a turban on her head, with the left she holds a plume, by Parmigianino's hand".

On the head she wears a doughnut-shaped headdress sewn with gilt thread and decorated by a medallion portraying Pegasus, perhaps a metaphor of love or a heraldic reference to the Cavalli family.

[6] This style of headwear was fashionable for women of the time, invented for Isabella d'Este and featured in numerous female portraits from the Lombard and Padan area in the early 16th century.

[5] On the hand, whose slender fingers are typical of Parmigianino art, she wears a small ring, perhaps a reference to a recent marriage.