Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Hanover (1673-1742), daughter of John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and of Benedetta Henrietta, Princess Palatine, was the sister of Charlotte Felicity (1671-1710), who married Rinaldo d'Este, the youngest son of Francis I, in 1696, after the latter had renounced his cardinal's robes in 1695 to ensure the continuation of the dynasty.
The marriage to Charlotte allowed the Este family to forge prestigious ties with the Imperial House of Austria. Indeed, in 1699, her sister Wilhelmina Amalia, who had been residing in the Este capital with her widowed mother since 1697, married Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I of Habsburg and King of the Romans since 1690, in Modena. The ceremony was a lavish affair, with the groom represented by proxy by his brother-in-law Rinaldo.
In 1705, Joseph would ascend to the imperial throne as Joseph I.
As early as 1697, on behalf of Emperor Leopold, the Dutchman Jan Frans Douven had created two portraits of Wilhelmina Amalia, one full-length and one smaller, to capture the appearance of the future bride. In 1699, court painter Francesco Stringa also portrayed the princess before her departure. This is corroborated by the research of Gabriella Guandalini, who identified Wilhelmina Amalia in the oval portrait at the Civic Museum of Art in Modena (see G. Guandalini, Entry no. 48 in 'Exhibition of Restored Works. 14th-18th Centuries', exhibition catalog, Palazzo dei Musei, Modena 1980, pp. 76-77, reprised in M. Canova, Entry no. 233, in 'Civic Museums of Modena. Ancient Paintings', edited by D. Benati, L. Peruzzi, Modena 2005, pp. 234-235).
This portrait of Wilhelmina Amalia, like the one in the Civic Museum (photo 1) and the other in Palazzo Carandini in Modena, formerly in the art collection of the Marquises Carandini (now Banco San Geminiano and San Prospero-BPV), follows the official iconography of the engraving by Elias Christoph Heiss (1660-1739) (photo 2).
It is also interesting to compare it with the portrait of the empress preserved at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, attributed to the workshop of Martin van Meytens (1695-1770) (photo 3).
Graziella Martinelli Braglia
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: (82 x 65) cm; maximum height 113 cm
