JACOB FERDINAND VOET

PORTRAIT OF MARCHESA ERMINIA SANTACROCE LANCELLOTTI

NOTES:

This portrait of the Marchesa Erminia Santacroce Lancellotti can be compared with her portrait in the Sala delle Belle of the Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia (see F. Petrucci, Ferdinand Voet (1639-1689), detto Ferdinando de’ Ritratti, Roma 2005, n. XII, p. 220).

Erminia Santacroce was born in Rome on the 29th of December, 1647.  She was the daughter of Scipione Santacroce and the Florentine Marchesa Ottavia Corsini.  The Santacroce family were already included in the important Roman family registers of 1250, and during the second half of the seventeenth century the family continued its prominence among the patrician families of Rome by producing three cardinals: Marcello, Antonio and Andrea.  Erminia’s husband also came from one of Rome’s most prominent families, the Lancelotti.  Erminia married the Marchese Ottavio Maria Lancellotti (1694-1702) on the 11th of September, 1666, and the couple settled in the Palazzo Lancellotti in Piazza Navona.  According to the the marriage agreement, her dowry was set at fifteen thousand scudi.  Ottavio became Conservatore di Roma in 1682.  Erminia was included in her mother’s will of February, 1679, along with her brother the Marchese Antonio Santacroce and her other siblings: Andrea who became an abbot, Costanza Maria, a nun at Tor de’ Specchi, Elena, Maria Drusilla and Claudia.  The couple’s eldest son, Scipione (1668-1723), went on to marry Olimpia Ginnetti di Velletri, inheriting tittles and properties from the prominent Veliterna family.

Dr. Francesco Petrucci, curator of the Palazzo Chigi, Comune di Ariccia, has confirmed this attribution, and has suggested the identity of the sitter on the basis of photographs.