Sold...portrait of Hortense Mancini, Duchesse Mazarin, C.1670; Circle of Jacob Ferdinand Voet

HORTENSE MANCINI, Duchesse Mazarin (1646 – 1699)

Hortense Mancini, the Duchess Mazarin, was one of five Italian sisters all noted for their great beauty. Two of them became mistress to Louis XIV. Born in Rome in 1646, Hortense moved to France at an early age. Charles II proposed to her while there, but her uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, Chief Minister of France, did not think the exiled English king's prospects were good. In 1661 she was married at the age of fifteen to Armand-Charles de la Meilleraye but escaped her cruel and mentally unstable husband in 1668, seeking refuge in Rome with her sister Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna. Louis XIV declared himself her protector, but she left for England arriving at the Court of Charles II in 1675 and becoming his mistress shortly thereafter. After the death of Charles Hortense was well provided for by King James II, possibly because of her kinship with the new queen, Mary of Modena. She maintained a cultured 'salon' of all the learned men of London. Reputed to have had an affair with the famous poetess Aphra Behn as well as others of both sexes, Hortense was considered an adventuress. She was known for her compulsive gambling, her skill with the rapier, and her inclination to wear men's clothing, but especially for her beauty and wit.

JACOB FERDINAND VOET (1639 - c.1700) was a Flemish painter who made his career in Rome in the second half of the 17th century.

He was an expert portrait painter who combined solid Flemish professionalism with stylistic features from French and Italian Baroque portraiture.

Little is known of Voet's early life in Antwerp. He arrived in Rome in 1663, probably via France. Voet became a much sought-after portrait painter to the Papal court and the Roman aristocracy. Certain Englishmen who visited Rome on their Grand Tour, also commissioned Voet to paint their portraits. Voet specialized in half-length portraits, in which all attention is concentrated on the subject, who emerges from a neutral, dark background. He was a sophisticated master of his medium, painting with an effortless accuracy and a fluid ease. Voet's subjects tend to have a reflective expression. Usually they have very striking, memorable eyes, always large and evocative.

Oil on canvas

SIZE: canvas 28 x 23 inches

PROVENANCE: Italian Private Collection