(Haarlem circa 1550–1607 Turin)
Portrait of Margaret of Savoy, Duchess of Mantua (1589–1655),
oil on canvas, 158.5 x 122 cm, framed

We are grateful to Paolo Bertelli and Arabella Cifani for independently suggesting the attribution. (written communications)

The present painting most likely served as an engagement portrait. Born as the fifth child of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (1562–1630), and Infanta Catherine Michaela of Spain, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, Margaret of Savoy was married to the future Francis IV, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat (1586–1612) on 19 February 1608. The wedding was an important dynastic alliance, preceded by diplomatic missions between the two courts and the exchange of gifts. Instrumental in the arrangement of a marriage of such an importance was of course the exchange of portraits of the two young persons about to become husband and wife.

Both Bertelli and Cifani have been able to prove that this painting is indeed the model for later adaptations - most notably Frans Pourbus later state portraits - and is full of iconographic clues to the sitter’s identity and position. The cloth is embroidered with the “nodo di Savoia”, and she is wearing a necklace that would later feature in numerous state portraits. The present painting, thus, could very well be the portrait the Savoy court painter Jan Kraeck painted and that was sent to Mantua to prepare the engagement of Margaret of Savoy and Francis of Mantua. Painted in Turin in 1607, this is one of Kraecks last commissions.

The Dutch artist Jan Kraeck, also known as Giovanni Caracca, was appointed the principal court painter by Carlo Emanuele in Turin in 1568 and remained in this role until his death in 1607. He mastered the international court style in portraiture popularised by the court painter of Philip II in Madrid, Antonis Mor. Kraeck’s many portraits of the members of the Savoy family were instrumental in Carlo Emanuele I’s ambitions to advance the fortunes of his dynasty.

The sitter, Margaret of Savoy, born during the powerful imperial reign of her maternal grandfather Philip II of Spain, also witnessed the decline of Habsburg power. She was the last Habsburg Vicereine of Portugal, being known in Portugese as the Duquesa de Mântua. Following the premature death of her Husband in 1612, she first became regent for her infant daughter Maria in the Duchy of Montferrat, and was sent to Portugal in 1635 as Vicereine. When the country re-gained its independence in 1640, she was arrested in the Revolution in Lisbon, but the Duke of Braganca, now King of Portugal as John IV, allowed her to depart to Spain, where this powerful woman spent the remainder of her life. Her granddaughter Eleonora became Holy Roman Empress in 1651, four years before Margaret’s death.