Portrait of Louise Renée de Penancoët de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth and Aubigny (Brest 1649 - Paris 1734) as MAGDALENE
Attributed to Pierre Mignard, known as Le Romain (Troyes 1612 – Paris 1695)
Oil on canvas (97 x 88 cm - in an important gilded frame 132 x 122 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Naples
Full details of this work can be found directly at the following - LINK -
The young and beautiful noblewoman depicted in this painting is Louise Renée de Penancoët de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth and Aubigny (Brest 1649 - Paris 1734), known for being the favored mistress of King Charles II for over fifteen years, from whose relationship Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, was born, but above all for going down in history as one of Louis XIV's French informers at the English court.
The Duchess was a very influential figure at court, promoting French interests and often acting as an intermediary between the king, his ministers, and the French ambassadors.
After the death of Charles II, this influence quickly ended, forcing her to hastily leave London and give up all her possessions to return to France, between Aubigny-sur-Nère and Paris, where she died in 1734, always remaining in the sovereign's favor.
The peculiarity of the portrait, probably executed after her return to France, is that the noblewoman takes on the features of a fascinating Mary Magdalene, here represented following her renunciation of earthly goods, her rich clothes, and her jewels, to aspire to heavenly riches; we see her immortalized with long hair loose on one breast, her intriguing but serene gaze directed at the observer, while she rests her hands crossed, as if in prayer, on the ampoule of scented ointments and the open book, both iconographic symbols.
The custom of being portrayed as Magdalene was in vogue for women of power in the great European courts since the sixteenth century, as it represented the most appropriate image to justify the union of power and female virtue. It must be said that court culture exalted only the positive characteristics of her personality, overlooking or downplaying any references to her sinful past and dissolute life.
The work, which in terms of style fits perfectly into seventeenth-century French portraiture, suggests the pertinent attribution to the Baroque painter Pierre Mignard (Troyes, 1612 - Paris, 1695), whose works were highly praised and earned him a great reputation as a portrait painter for the demanding Parisian aristocracy in the time of Louis XIV, and who portrayed the Duchess de Kérouaille on numerous occasions.
His first important artistic training took place in the studio of Simon Vouet, before moving to Italy for over twenty years before returning to Paris, merging his own with the influence of Roman classicism.
The elegant fluency of touch and the sensual refinement typical of Mignard, combined with a very accurate chiaroscuro rendering, inherited from his artistic training in Rome (which looks to the examples of Ferdinand Voet), and the exceptional sweetness of the drawing, the floridity of the complexion and almost glazed surfaces, and finally, the peculiar pose of the figure portrayed (the beauty of the two intertwined hands is unmistakable), further reinforce our attribution.
The condition of the painting is excellent.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The painting is completed by a pleasant gilded frame.
The work is sold with a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic sheet.
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