A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU AND BARDIGLIO MARBLE PROFILE PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS

CIRCA 1795

Details

A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU AND BARDIGLIO MARBLE PROFILE PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS
CIRCA 1795
Depicting the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, later Emperior Francis I of Austria (1768-1835), wearing The Order of the Golden Fleece and The Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa; and his consort the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa (1772-1807)
5½ in. (14 cm.) diameter (2)

Provenance

The late Lady de Trafford, sold Christie's London, 3 March 1994, lot 1.

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Lot Essay

An identical pair of portrait silhouettes are at Waddesdon (see T. Hodgkinson, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Sculpture, London 1970, nos. 44-45). As T. Hodgkinson concluded, the portraits probably date from 1792, when Francis II became Holy Roman Emperor on the death of his father Leopold II (1747-92), as only then was he entitled to wear the insignia of Grand Master of the Order of Maria Theresa (his grandmother). Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily was the Emperor's double first cousin, whom he married in 1790 as his second wife, and was mother to all of his children.

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