Portrait of Marie Mancini C.1660; Studio of Pierre Mignard (1612-1695)

This sublime work is an outstanding example of French portraiture from the 1660’s. It abounds with ingenious flourishes and demonstrations of the painter's skill; the rendering of the face and hands is striking and as is the portrayal of the sumptuous fabrics and their decorative richness. The sfumato technique employed in the hand and the pearls affords a softness which is utterly beautiful – the same technique is used for the curl of hair on the forehead. These elements are a virtuosic handling of paint. The graceful pose, sumptuous costume, rich colours, and brilliant technique are distinctive features of this portrait and it was a type that was in great demand during the 17th century as it is today. The reverse of the canvas is inscribed “bonne de Maussabe remy” and the portrait is contained within a carved and gesso 17th century frame. This is a superb portrait that Titan Fine Art are proud to offer.

The portrait represents Marie Mancini (1639-1715) who was the third of the five famous Mancini sisters, nieces to Cardinal Mazarin, the primary minister of King Louis XIV of France. She holds a string of 35 pearls which were given to her as a farewell gift from the King, that he acquired from his aunt, Henrietta Maria of England. The sisters were an immensely popular family and their portraits were painted many times. At court they were known as the Mazarinettes.

A near identical portrait painted c.1660 attributed to Pierre Mignard is in the prestigious collection of Georges de Lastic-Saint-Jal (1927-1988) at the 15th century Château de Parentignat in France. It is one of the largest private collections of 17th and 18th century old master paintings. It was exhibited at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and Senlis, Musée de la Vènerie ("The Cabinet of an Amateur", Hunting and Nature Museum) in Paris on 7th Dec 2010 to 14th March 2011, and at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, from June 20 to September 15, 1997, and the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, from October 8, 1997 to January 5, 1998

Marie Mancini was born in Rome on the 28th of August 1639, the third daughter of Lorenzo Mancini, a Roman aristocrat with a rather unusual passion for astrology and necromancy, and his wife, Hieronyma Mazzarini, who was the sister of the influential Cardinal Mazarin. Marie’s father read the planets shortly after her birth and predicted that she would bring trouble to the family name in the future, a gloomy prediction that caused Hieronyma to set her heart on Marie entering a convent.

There were five Mancini girls in the family – Laure, Olympe, Marie, Hortense and Marie Anne. All of them had their own distinct personalities and all of them were Italian firecrackers with bold, dark good looks, flashing eyes, sharp intelligence, and often rather caustic wit that the traditional convent education of Roman aristocracy girls did nothing to dampen. It’s no surprise therefore that their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, planned for the girls to be brought to Paris to dazzle the French court, and enter into far more glittering and prestigious marriages than they might have otherwise done in Italy.

Therefore, in the 1650s, the Mancini girls made their way to Paris, where they lived along with their cousins, the Martinozzi girls - Laure and Anne Marie - amidst great opulence in their uncle’s huge mansion close to the Louvre, which was filled with magnificent works of art and all manner of luxuries. Thanks to their uncle’s almost intimate footing with the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria and by extension, her son Louis XIV, the sisters also found themselves firmly ensconced within the royal circle and besieged, flattered and courted by everyone else – their beauty, wealth and that all important glittering proximity to royalty making them...

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