(Palancato 1690–1763 Vercelli)
Prince Vittorio Amadeo of Savoy, the future King of Sardinia, receiving riding instruction, attended by his father King Carlo Emanuele III.;
A stag hunt with king and crown prince,
oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm and 64,5 x 82 cm, framed (2)

We are grateful to Arabella Cifani for confirming this to be a painting by Angela Maria Pittetti. With detailed expert report (January 2015).

Born into a family of artists, Angela Maria Pittetti, on 6th September 1711, was wed to Giovanni Felice Zenone at the Cathedral of Turin – a marriage that was not destined to last very long. In 1716, the artist separated from her husband and from then on lived alone in Turin, where she studied with the foremost genre painter of her generation, Pietro Domenico Olivero (1679-1755). It appears that she frequently worked for the court. Interestingly, the account books of the royal administration in 1740 show an order for four paintings for the Stupinigi hunting chateau. Arabella Cifani dates the present two paintings to ca. 1735, as Vittorio Amadeo, who was born in 1726, is shown at an age younger than ten. It is possible that the present paintings were likewise commissioned for the one of the royal hunting chateaus.

Vittorio Amadeo III., the firstborn son of King Carlo Emmanuele III. and his second wife Polyxena of Hessen-Rotenburg, was born in 1726 in Turin. He developed an early interest in fine arts, literature, and science, an inclination which his French tutor, Marquis Viccardel de Fleury, encouraged (Fleury may also have been portrayed here). Nor was the young prince’s military training neglected: the above paintings make reference to his athletic prowess. Equestrian training and hunting on horseback were not merely indulged in for pleasure but served as part of the military cavalry training required in war – the mounted hunt was actually referred to as “praeludium belli”.

Vittorio Amadeo would go on to become a very conservative and deeply devout monarch, happy in his marriage to Maria Antonietta of Spain, and one of the most popular rulers of the Piedmont. Though this is not apparent in the paintings at hand, the relationship between father and son was fraught. Carlo Emanuelle rarely involved his son in government affairs. Nevertheless, joint portraits (including one by Clementi, showing the son handing a map of Milan to his father, the king; today at Castello Carignano) as well as paintings such as the ones at hand served to demonstrate dynastic continuity and as an expression of aristocratic self-conception.