(Florence 1710–1783)
Double Portrait of Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine (1747–1792) and Maria Luisa of Spain (1745–1792),
oil on canvas, 61 x 87 cm, framed

We are grateful to Sandro Bellesi for suggesting the attribution of the present painting.

This painting represents Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine and his wife Maria Luisa Borbone of Spain. Peter Leopold was the son of Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresia of Austria; he was married to the daughter of King Charles III of Spain in 1765. That same year he was created Grand Duke of Tuscany and the couple moved to Florence. In 1790 he became Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia. He returned to Vienna as Leopold II and lived there until his death in 1792.

In this painting the young couple is represented soon after their wedding, around the time of their move to Tuscany. Peter Leopold wears the emblem of the chivalric Order of the Golden Fleece which was created to protect and diffuse the Catholic faith in Europe particularly in connection with the Spanish and Austrian branches of the Habsburg dynasty to which the couple belonged.

Violante Siriès Cerroti was born in 1710, in Florence, where she acquired the first principles of painting; she travelled to Paris to study the portraiture of the leading masters, such as François Boucher. She was admired as a portraitist and also attained success as a copyist, including an oval canvas of the Sacred Heart of Jesus after Pompeo Batoni, for the church of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, Florence
(see S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei pittori fiorentini del ‘600 e ‘700, Florence 2009, vol. I, pp. 252-253).

The present work can be compared to other compositions by the artist in which she also depicted clothing and jewellery in a similarly detailed manner, as well as creating expression in her sitters, such as her self-portrait and the Girl with a scroll (Giovinetta con foglio arrotolato) both in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 09.102582 and inv. no. 09.641462).

Bellesi dates the present painting to 1765, or a little later, during the period when the Habsburg couple had just arrived in Florence. It is possible, given the refined stylistic language of the painting, that the work was commissioned by the Grand Duke himself.