Ritratto di Anna Maria Cristina di Baviera

Painted in 1685, this portrait of Anna Maria Cristina of Bavaria, now at the Accademia Tadini, documents a high-ranking German princess in the early period of Largillière's career when he was beginning to attract aristocratic sitters from across Europe. Anna Maria Cristina was a daughter of the Elector of Bavaria and a figure of considerable dynastic importance in the shifting alliance politics of late-seventeenth-century Europe. A portrait by Largillière at this date would have represented a significant commission: the artist was establishing himself as the leading portraitist for French and internationally connected aristocracy, and a Bavarian princess in his portfolio confirmed his cross-European reputation. The Accademia Tadini, a small but distinguished museum in Lovere on Lake Iseo in northern Italy, holds this portrait as evidence of the wide geographic circulation of early-eighteenth-century French portraiture.

The 1685 date places this among Largillière's earliest surviving aristocratic commissions, showing his portrait manner before it had fully developed its characteristic warm Paris tonality. Royal female portraits required specific formal elements: a compositional formality appropriate to the sitter's rank, costume of the highest quality rendered with material precision, and jewellery that signalled dynastic wealth and status.