Jacob Ferdinand Voet

Private collection, Italy.

The canvas has been relined, the paint surface is stable and only slightly dirty. The varnish is even and fluoresces milkily under ultraviolet light, which reveals multiple, but very sensitively-rendered, retouchings to the sitter's face, and strengthenings in the cravat, not visible to the naked eye. There is also a patch of repaint on the right side of his hair. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame in good condition.
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Vittorio Amedeo II acceded to the Dukedom of Savoy in 1675, when only nine years old. He supplanted his mother who had acted as Regent in 1684, and this portrait type probably dates from around that date. Voet painted the young Duke on at least three occasions, and this seems to have been the most popular likeness. Petrucci records some ten studio versions or copies, but until now no autograph version was known.¹ We are grateful to Dr. Francesco Petrucci for confirming the attribution to Voet on the basis of photographs, and stating that, in his opinion, this is the best of the known versions of the composition.

1. F. Petrucci, Ferdinand Voet (1639–1689) detto Ferdinando de' Ritratti, Rome 2005, pp. 276–77, nos. 288a–l.