Portrait of Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy,
oil on canvas, 125.5 x 92 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Alberto Marchesin for his help in cataloguing the present painting.

The present portrait represents Carlo Emanuele I (Rivoli 1562–1630 Savigliano), the son of Emanuele Filiberto and Margherita of Valois, who was Duke of Savoy from 1580 until his death. Although the present canvas lacks inscriptions or a documented history, the identification of the sitter is supported by images in which a marked physical resemblance with the Duke can be seen.

The present work can be compared to the portraits by the court painter Jan Kraeck, called Giovanni Caracca (Haarlem circa 1568-Turin 1607) to which can be added, in chronological order, the marble bust attributed to Andrea Rivalta (Rome? – Turin, 1624) and the tempera on parchment by Giovanni Garzoni (Ascoli Piceno 1600–1670 Rome). Further confirmation for the identification of the present sitter’s identity can be found in engravings by Giacomo Fornaseri (documented in Piedmont and Paris 1590–1619) and Willem de Haen (1591–1625 circa).

If Emanuele Filiberto’s art of war restored sovereignty to the States of Savoy, it was Carlo Emanuele I who impressed a new trajectory of government based on the arts bent to the service of his own glory and that of the House of Savoy (see S. Gal, Carlo Emanuele I: le arti e le armi al servizio dell’ambizione reale dei Savoia, in A. M. Bava, E. Pagella (eds.), Le Meraviglie del mondo. Le collezioni di Carlo Emanuele I di Savoia, exhibiton catalogue, Musei Reali, Turin 16 December 2016-2 April 2017, Genoa 2016, p.17). Indeed, during the fifty years of his rule, the prince was depicted primarily to underscore his role as a victorious commander, as is demonstrated by the present painting a state portrait, which is datable to the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Stylistically, the present painting can be identified as being by a Flemish hand, both on account of the composition, which conforms to the norms of international portraiture, and on account of the calligraphic manner of depicting the costume, which is in the Spanish fashion. The subject’s clothes are ornamented with a dynastic motif, the knot of Savoy, while the sitter is further ennobled by the collar of the Order of the Santissima Annunziata.