Which Reminds Me

Interesting how, when looking at pictures of Italian aristocrats of the Renaissance, some of the people in the portraits seem to have reddish hair. These were the D'Este's, the Medicis, the Gonzagas, della Roveres, etc. But were they really redheads or is that a painter's touch to add highlights? Or is that a hairpiece tacked on to her head? In such elaborate headdresses of the time it is hard to tell what is real or just an artistic gloss. How sad that so many of their children succumbed to various diseases: malaria, tuberculosis, food poisoning, stranglings, not to mention the syphilis prevailing amongst those hedonistic libertines of the "nobility." Very clever.