STEPHAN WOLOHOJIAN: So many works of art were commissioned at the time of unions in the Renaissance. It's very much the way today you often have a registry when you get married and fill a household with wonderful things.

NARRATOR: You’re looking at a double portrait. Scholars think it was probably made to celebrate an engagement.

RABBI SAMANTHA FRANK: But I'm also looking at it and seeing this woman who's really the central figure, and maybe to an extent she's a central figure in their future life together.

I'm Rabbi Samantha Frank. I'm seeing under his hand this sort of orange-and-black striped pattern. What's going on there underneath his hands?

NARRATOR: That’s a coat of arms. Curator Stephan Wolohojian.

STEPHAN WOLOHOJIAN: He's wooing her with a, you know, “You're going to be part of the Scolari family.”

RABBI SAMANTHA FRANK: I want to know everything about the jewelry that she's wearing, just because I love jewelry.

STEPHAN WOLOHOJIAN: On her head, on the hairpiece she wears, there is a brooch which we call the Brocchetta ditesta, a head brooch. On her shoulder there is another brooch, a Brocchetta di spalla. They were very symbolic and very important and monetarily very expensive gifts that came at a moment of exchange.

NARRATOR: In this time and place, marriages between wealthy families often had more to do with money and power than they did with love.

STEPHAN WOLOHOJIAN: And you can see in many ways, looking at this portrait that this, let’s call it what it is – trophy – is what you were getting. The jewels and the rich finery that she's wearing, the fur of her dress, the pearls of her costume, the embroidery… this is a trophy.