CHILDREN OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY
Among the Duke of Aosta’s belongings that Bolaffi put up for auction in autumn 2013, some portraits of children from the House of Savoy achieved excellent results. The works may be attributed to specific painters, or at least to certain contexts, which are valued by antiques dealers and collectors thanks to their authentic origin and charming subjects.
The oldest of these, dated 1589, is most likely the work, entirely or mostly so, of Jan Kraeck, (Haarlem, recorded from 1568-Turin, 1607), also called by his Italian name Giovanni Caracca, the court painter of Charles Emanuel I (1562-1630) and Catherine Michelle of Austria (1567-1597). It portrays the patrons’ three children: Philip Emanuel I at the age of three, Emanuel Philibert at eleven months, and Victor Amadeus at twenty-three months. Their fair complexions and clean-cut faces, especially in Philip Emanuel’s figure (almost certainly by Kraeck’s hand), and the precise details recall the other numerous portraits of Catherine Michelle’s ten children at those same ages. It is known that, generally, portraits were a strategic, diplomatic and praiseful means of paying homage and tribute in the world of dynastic politics. That said, the number of its reproductions suggests that Catherine Michelle wished to rekindle her strong emotional bond with her father Philip II of Spain, from whom she had grown distant after her marriage to Charles Emanuel in 1585. In 2005 three paintings attributed to Kraeck were auctioned off in London. These were full-length portraits of the couple’s other children, and had belonged to Maria Beatrice of Savoy, and even earlier, to the Racconigi Castle collection. Two of them can now be seen at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin.
The portrait of Charles Emanuel II of Savoy (Turin, 1634-1675) is presumably the work of the Frenchman Philibert Torret (Brioud ?-Turin 1669), known as Narciso, a court painter reconfirmed by Victor Amadeus in 1637. This picture of Charles Emanuel II bespeaks his controversial claim to the title of Duke, after the death of his firstborn brother Francis Hyacinth. When his mother, Marie Christine Bourbon of France (1606-1663), took rule for the second time, she was strongly opposed by Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignan, who, fearing that he would be cut off from the line of succession, made an alliance with Spain, which had previously been at war with Christine’s own France.
Thus did civil war break out in Piedmont (1639-41). In 1642 the two powers deprived Thomas of any right to succession and formally declared Charles Emanuel II the legitimate heir. The portrait likely dates back to this period, or shortly thereafter. In it, the Duke poses in ceremonial armor in front of a red curtain, while resting his right hand on his helm, which is placed on a table. Known in private collections, an undated engraving by Balthasar Moncornet bears much resemblance to the portrait, but it was presumably done earlier. In those same years, the Duke is depicted and emblazoned in another print by Charles Audran, and this was the basis for a painting attributed to Esprit Grandjean, called Monsù Spirito. He is also rendered in two paintings that portray him with his mother and sisters Margaret Yolande and Henriette Adelaide (1644 ca.), one of which is kept in Turin, and the other at the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena. The latter is attributed to Philibert Torret himself.
Less politically and symbolically involved are three canvases with young royal princesses. The document concerning its commission, conserved in the State Archives of Turin, has been cited in various publications, and the three canvases have only recently been physically tracked down. The archival notes refer to a commission given to Louis Michel van Loo (Toulon 1707-Paris 1771), who, just before departing for Rome in 1733, did portraits of Polyxena of Hesse Rotenburg’s three daughters: Eleonora Maria Teresa (1728-1781), Maria Luisa Gabriella (1729-1767), and Maria Felicita Vittoria (1730-1801). In full seventeenth-century style, the three girls are each posed sitting on a crimson pillow. Eleonora Maria Teresa is outside with an architectural scene in the background; she wears a light blue dress that matches the color of her eyes, the flowers in her hair and the sky. The same careful chromatic harmony in their clothes, the flowers in their hair and the backgrounds can be noted in the other two girls, who are playing with a parrot and a little dog, respectively.
By Maria Ludovica Vertova
The oldest of these, dated 1589, is most likely the work, entirely or mostly so, of Jan Kraeck, (Haarlem, recorded from 1568-Turin, 1607), also called by his Italian name Giovanni Caracca, the court painter of Charles Emanuel I (1562-1630) and Catherine Michelle of Austria (1567-1597). It portrays the patrons’ three children: Philip Emanuel I at the age of three, Emanuel Philibert at eleven months, and Victor Amadeus at twenty-three months. Their fair complexions and clean-cut faces, especially in Philip Emanuel’s figure (almost certainly by Kraeck’s hand), and the precise details recall the other numerous portraits of Catherine Michelle’s ten children at those same ages. It is known that, generally, portraits were a strategic, diplomatic and praiseful means of paying homage and tribute in the world of dynastic politics. That said, the number of its reproductions suggests that Catherine Michelle wished to rekindle her strong emotional bond with her father Philip II of Spain, from whom she had grown distant after her marriage to Charles Emanuel in 1585. In 2005 three paintings attributed to Kraeck were auctioned off in London. These were full-length portraits of the couple’s other children, and had belonged to Maria Beatrice of Savoy, and even earlier, to the Racconigi Castle collection. Two of them can now be seen at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin.
The portrait of Charles Emanuel II of Savoy (Turin, 1634-1675) is presumably the work of the Frenchman Philibert Torret (Brioud ?-Turin 1669), known as Narciso, a court painter reconfirmed by Victor Amadeus in 1637. This picture of Charles Emanuel II bespeaks his controversial claim to the title of Duke, after the death of his firstborn brother Francis Hyacinth. When his mother, Marie Christine Bourbon of France (1606-1663), took rule for the second time, she was strongly opposed by Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignan, who, fearing that he would be cut off from the line of succession, made an alliance with Spain, which had previously been at war with Christine’s own France.
Thus did civil war break out in Piedmont (1639-41). In 1642 the two powers deprived Thomas of any right to succession and formally declared Charles Emanuel II the legitimate heir. The portrait likely dates back to this period, or shortly thereafter. In it, the Duke poses in ceremonial armor in front of a red curtain, while resting his right hand on his helm, which is placed on a table. Known in private collections, an undated engraving by Balthasar Moncornet bears much resemblance to the portrait, but it was presumably done earlier. In those same years, the Duke is depicted and emblazoned in another print by Charles Audran, and this was the basis for a painting attributed to Esprit Grandjean, called Monsù Spirito. He is also rendered in two paintings that portray him with his mother and sisters Margaret Yolande and Henriette Adelaide (1644 ca.), one of which is kept in Turin, and the other at the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena. The latter is attributed to Philibert Torret himself.
Less politically and symbolically involved are three canvases with young royal princesses. The document concerning its commission, conserved in the State Archives of Turin, has been cited in various publications, and the three canvases have only recently been physically tracked down. The archival notes refer to a commission given to Louis Michel van Loo (Toulon 1707-Paris 1771), who, just before departing for Rome in 1733, did portraits of Polyxena of Hesse Rotenburg’s three daughters: Eleonora Maria Teresa (1728-1781), Maria Luisa Gabriella (1729-1767), and Maria Felicita Vittoria (1730-1801). In full seventeenth-century style, the three girls are each posed sitting on a crimson pillow. Eleonora Maria Teresa is outside with an architectural scene in the background; she wears a light blue dress that matches the color of her eyes, the flowers in her hair and the sky. The same careful chromatic harmony in their clothes, the flowers in their hair and the backgrounds can be noted in the other two girls, who are playing with a parrot and a little dog, respectively.
By Maria Ludovica Vertova