Portrait of the Young Ortensia Mancini, Duchess of La Meilleraye (Rome 1646 - Chelsea 1699)

Oil on canvas

75 x 61 cm.

exquisite gilded and lacquered wooden double frame 105 x 91 cm.

The beautiful painting depicting the young and attractive Duchess Ortensia Mancini is part of the refined portraiture of Jacob Ferdinand Voet (Antwerp 1639 - Paris 1689). Of Flemish origin, the painter achieved great success with the aristocratic families of Rome - where he stayed from 1663 to 1679 - thanks to the famous series of portraits commissioned by Cardinal Flavio Chigi, depicting the most enchanting women of the time, and now housed in the Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia.

The paintings became so popular that the artist was repeatedly asked to reproduce replicas and similar versions of them: the 'cabinet des dames' was thus one of the Roman fashions of the 17th century, justifying the large number of female portraits attributable to his workshop that gravitated on the market.

Voet flaunted in his portraits a peculiar softness and grace in the rendering of the complexions, a subtle voluptuousness in the description of the lips, entrusted to small brushstrokes of red, a sense of calm fixity in the pose, all characteristics that are immediately reflected in the work under examination.

Our young effigy, Hortense Mancini, Duchess of La Meilleraye (Rome 1646 - Chelsea 1699), was the favourite niece of Cardinal Julius Mazarin, first councillor of the young King of France Louis XIV, and mistress of Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland. She was the fourth of the five famous Mancini sisters (together with Laura, Olympia, Maria, Maria Anne) and often posed for Voet.

Among her many works we can mention the Portrait of Ortensia Mancini in the Louvre, https://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/voet/mancini4.html and of course the one in Palazzo Chigi.

The painting, in particular, is a derivation of the canvas depicting 'Maria Mancini reads fortune to her sister Ortensia', painted by the painter around 1661 and now housed in the English Royal Collections at Windsor Castle [1].

https://www.rct.uk/collection/404067/hortense-mancini-duchesse-de-mazarin-1646-99-and-her-sister-mar....

In this work we see the two Mancini sisters, portrayed in a half-length pose, with Hortense shown just fifteen years old, intent on having her hand read by Maria. She is dressed simply, in a soft, white dress that leaves her shoulders uncovered and a red cloak that she holds gracefully, without accessories or ostentatious jewellery. The beauty inherent in her youth is the real star of the canvas.

The painting is completed by a marvellous gilded and lacquered wooden frame, richly worked in a double frame.