(Antwerp 1639–1689 Paris)
Portraits of Cristina Dudley Paleotti; Maria Virginia Borghese Chigi; Anna Maria Carpegna Naro; Francesca Greppi Fani; Ortensia Mancini; Maria Ippolita Olgiati Buratti; an unknown sitter; and Isabella Strozzi Costaguti,
oil on canvas, each 73 x 60.5 cm, framed, a set of eight

Provenance:
Private aristocratic collection, Nothern Italy;
where acquired by the present owner

The present paintings are related to a series of portraits which Ferdinand Voet painted for Cardinal Chigi of prominent young women from Roman society. He created this series of portraits, the ‘Galleria delle Belle’ between 1672 and 1678 for Cardinal Chigi’s palace in Ariccia, outside Rome. He later repeated and enlarged the series of celebrated society beauties for other Roman and Italian noble families.

Ferdinand Voet was born in Antwerp, the son of the painter Elias Voet. He left his native Antwerp and travelled to Rome where he was established from 1663 to 1680. He became a member of the Bentvueghels, an association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome. In Rome Voet’s skills as a portrait painter were sort after the Papal court and by the Roman aristocracy, including theColonna and Odescalchi families. He was patronised by Christina, Queen of Sweden, who was then resident in Rome whose portrait he painted. Voet left Rome and was recorded in Milan in 1680. He was in Florence in 1681 where he worked for the Medici. Subsequently he resided in Turin from 1682 to 1684. He returned to Antwerp in 1684 and then left for Paris at some time between 1684 and 1686, and died there in 1689.