(Turin 1692–1761)
Portrait of Victor Amadeus II, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy; and
Portrait of his first wife, Queen Anna Maria, Princess of Orléans,
oil on canvas, each 85 x 69 cm, framed, a pair (2)

We are grateful to Arabella Ciffani for suggesting the attribution. Her written analysis accompanies the present lot.

Maria Giovanna Battista Bussano Clementi, also known as La Clementina (1692–1761) was a portrait painter active for the Savoy court in Turin in the first half of the eighteenth century. Contrarily to women painters of the period, she undertook an artistic career independently from family connections: her father was a surgeon, and little is known about her husband, Giuseppe Bartolomeo Clementi. She was a woman with great human qualities – mother of at least ten children, including two priests – and excellent artistic skills. Even at a very early age, she enjoyed the patronage of the Royal court.
The present pair of paintings are rare, early works, and striking in their elegance and sensibility. La Clementina trained under the court painter Giovan Battista Curlando (1648–1710), who introduced her to portraiture. However, her work bears the influence also of Pietro Antonio Pozzi, with whom she collaborated in the early 1720s, of the Swedish portraitist Martin van Mytens, who visited Turin in the late 1720s, and of the French painters who worked for the aristocracy in that city. She began by producing and copying portraits of the Savoy Royal Family to be sent to other European courts. The name of la Clementina thus soon became well-known all-over Europe and she was
commissioned portraits by the most powerful reigning families of the continent. Other than for the Savoy Royal Family, she worked for the Habsburgs, the Hesse, and the Bourbons (both the French and the Spanish branch). The present painting possesses many characteristics typical of la Clementina’s style.