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Lot Essay
Marie Therese of Spain was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and his first wife Elizabeth of France. To enshrine the peace between Spain and France, she married Louis XIV in 1660 and became Queen of France. History and fortune were unkind to the queen; due to her isolated social life at the court and the numerous affairs of her husband she was nicknamed the poor Marie Therese. Despite this, the modern day perception of the Queen of France is dominated by the immortal series of portraits painted by Diego Velasquez, two of which are in the Prado, Madrid.
Physiognomical similarites are shared by almost all of her portraits - including the bust offered here: a strong, masculine, chin, the so-called 'Habsburg lip' and shallow forehead. She was, furthemore, commonly depicted wearing her hair in a mass of tight curls framing the face with a bun at the back and with distinctively embroidered clothes and prominent jewellery.
The present bust depicts the sitter at an advanced age wearing French courtly dress: tightly corseted with very large, puffing sleeves, a 'Point de France' needlework lace collar, a pearl necklace and a large pearl-mounted brooch. The collar is comparable to the one Marie Therese is wearing in a portrait from the school of Jean Nocret in the Chateau de Versailles, which displays scrolling foliage against an intricate mesh background. While elaborate jewellery was common at the time, the French queen was commonly depicted wearing a distinctive string of large pearls - a gift from her stepmother Anne of Austria - and a large pearl-encrusted brooch which she is seen wearing in the Velasquez and school of Nocret painted portraits as well as in a contemporary marble profile protrait relief in the Chateau de Versailles.
Physiognomical similarites are shared by almost all of her portraits - including the bust offered here: a strong, masculine, chin, the so-called 'Habsburg lip' and shallow forehead. She was, furthemore, commonly depicted wearing her hair in a mass of tight curls framing the face with a bun at the back and with distinctively embroidered clothes and prominent jewellery.
The present bust depicts the sitter at an advanced age wearing French courtly dress: tightly corseted with very large, puffing sleeves, a 'Point de France' needlework lace collar, a pearl necklace and a large pearl-mounted brooch. The collar is comparable to the one Marie Therese is wearing in a portrait from the school of Jean Nocret in the Chateau de Versailles, which displays scrolling foliage against an intricate mesh background. While elaborate jewellery was common at the time, the French queen was commonly depicted wearing a distinctive string of large pearls - a gift from her stepmother Anne of Austria - and a large pearl-encrusted brooch which she is seen wearing in the Velasquez and school of Nocret painted portraits as well as in a contemporary marble profile protrait relief in the Chateau de Versailles.