Portrait of Maria Giovanna Battista di Savoia Nemours, called Madama Reale, Duchess and subsequently Regent of Savoy (1644-1724), bust-length, in a grey silk dress with lace trimmings and a blue velvet shawl

The daughter of Charles-Amédée of Savoy, Duke of Nemours, the sitter was brought up at the French court, became the second wife of Duke Carlo-Emanuele II in 1665, and on his death in 1675 assumed for their only child, Vittorio Amedeo II, the regency, which she relinquished with great reluctance in 1684. The marriage in 1666 of her younger sister, Marie-Françoise-Elisabeth (Maria Francisca), to King Alfonso VI of Portugal, increased the extent of her international network and drew the courts of Turin and Lisbon closer to each other.

Maria Giovanna's enthusiasm for precious objects, richly decorated furniture and objects of virtue is amply documented in diplomatic dispatches, the artistic policies of her regency being aimed at continuing and bringing to fruition those of her late husband. Among her successes was the publication in 1682 of the Theatrum Sabaudiae, and her role in realizing this ambitious scheme is commemorated by the dedication to her of the genealogical table, engraved by Ambrosius Perlingh, and by the inclusion of Robert Nanteuil's engraved portrait of her, dated 1678, as a pendant to that of Carlo-Emanuele II at the beginning of the first volume. She also pressed ahead with her husband's plans for the urban extension of Turin.