Portrait of King Carlo Emanuele III of Sardinia (1701-1773), bust-length, in profile

Carlo Emanuele III acceded to the throne on the abdication of his father, Vittorio Amedeo II, in 1730. His exceptionally long reign took place during a turbulent time in European politics, following the problematic Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, in which the Spanish crown had ceded its Italian possessions to the Habsburgs in Austria. At the beginning of his reign Carlo Emanuele allowed himself to be bribed by the French to join an alliance against Austria and in 1734 he briefly won French support for his claim to the Duchy of Milan. In 1743, however, Carlo Emanuele allied Savoy with the enemies of France under the terms of the Treaty of Worms in which he recognised Austria's claim to Milan in exchange for Vigevano and Piacenza, and the promise of Sicily. Despite the sensational victory of the Piedmontese army against the French at Assietta in 1747 the Sicilian claim was not realised. Nevertheless, Carlo Emanuele's expansionist foreign policy increased the size of his kingdom and put it at the centre of the grand stage of European diplomacy.

This profile depiction of the King is repeated in a locket depicted in the hand of his queen, Polissena d'Asia, in the full-length portrait of the latter at Racconigi.