Provenance: Private collection, Pienza.

The painting, together with the following lot, is accompanied by the expertise by Prof. Francesco Petrucci, December 2022 (an extract of which is reported below).
The pair of unpublished paintings constitutes an interesting addition to the catalog of the Flemish painter Jacob Ferdinand Voet, known as "Monsù Ferdinando" or "Ferdinando de' Ritratti" (Antwerp 1639 - Paris 1689), valuable from a pictorial and iconographic point of view, because these are portraits of unknown ladies, not included in the series of female portraits painted by the artist for the Chigi, Colonna, Altieri, Odescalchi, Savoia and other famous Italian families. [...] The two girls are dressed according to the fashion spread throughout Europe by the court of Louis XIV, popularized in Italy by the "mazzarinette", the sisters Ortensia and Maria Mancini, together with their sister-in-law Diane Gabrielle de Thianges Duchess of Nevers.
The first painting, which we will call "Portrait of a Lady with an Ocher Shawl", depicts a particularly beautiful young woman, who has an elaborate "hurlupée" or "hurluberlu" hairstyle with a central parting, two large locks of curly hair falling to the sides of the forehead , collected at the back in a voluminous tail, called "serpentaux".
However, the accessories are essential, limited to the two “scaramazze” pearl earrings, without the necklace, ribbons and colored bows as in other portraits of gentlewomen by Voet. The portrait is focused on the communicative intensity of her face with large expressive eyes, full lips, the perfect oval of the face, and on her wide and bold neckline that bares her shoulders and part of her breasts. The décolleté is bordered by a white shirt with embroidered lace, a sort of dark ocher or mustard colored silk scarf marked by sequences of three transversal lines. The corset, decorated with golden floral tendrils on a purplish background, is held in the center by a large gold and precious stone clasp around a central ruby. An ocher shawl is placed on her left arm. The pictorial ductus of her dress is loose and confident, with fluid and cursive brushstrokes, while the complexion of her face and neckline is painted with a transparent and smooth material, shaded in the hair, as in the painter's best works.
The essentiality of the clothing recalls the portraits of Ortensia and Maria Mancini, Ottavia Renzi Strozzi, Maria Camilla Pallavicini Rospigliosi, Giacinta Conti Cesi, all represented in the "Galleria delle belle" of Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia.