No. 296922
File: 1684354200451.jpg (48.54 KB, 394x450, Alexorig.jpg)
No. 300388
File: 1685867498314.jpg (1.6 MB, 2287x3051, Maria-carolina-regina-napol[1]…)
This is Maria Carolina, sister of Marie Antoinette and queen of Naples and Sicily. Once she got married with her "very ugly" spanish husband (called simultaneously Ferdinand III and IV, then Ferdinand I) she did her best to establish a Habsburg foothold by removing the incompetent king's advisors and replacing all of them with her own, including her good friend sir John Action (who Ferdinand was furiously jealous of)
A freemason, she brought an era of enlightened absolutism on southern Italy. The death of Marie Antoinette at the hand of revolutionaries horrified her, to the point that she refused to even speak french, and eventually turned Naples into a police state. As nearly all european royalty she was an enemy of Napoleon, who still thought enough of her to call her "the only man in the Kingdom of Naples". She suffered several military defeats against him and her life ended in exile in Vienna. Like her mother she was very aware that the Habsburg family's influence was dwindling, and had 18 children (less than half survived to adulthood) to further establish themselves over Europe. This ended up going beyond her expectations, as her granddaughter Marie Louise married the very same Napoleon
If you look at the painting you'll notice, along with the incredible hair and gorgeous jewels and fan, the very elaborate stomacher, which is a triangular piece of clothing worn on the stomach. They're often so complex that, just like here, the artist struggles to depict them accurately
No. 300666
File: 1685989064023.jpg (126.93 KB, 720x984, FxVVpGvgAAgQbX.jpg)
