Manon Balletti
Manon Balletti c1757 by French Painter Jean-Marc Nattier (1685–1766); known for painting portraits in classical mythical attire of the ladies that were part of King Louis XV court.
This is a beautiful portrait of Manon Balletti (1740 – 1776) the daughter of Italian actress Zanetta Rosa Benozzi Balletti (1701 – 1758) known under her stage name as Silvia Balletti (a member of the Troupe de Regente of Luigi Riccoboni (1676 – 1753) at the Comédie-Italienne in Paris 1716 – 1758), and the lover of the famous womanizer Giacomo Casanova.
This is a retouched digital art reproduction of a public domain image.
Info Below Is Derived From Wikipedia.org
JeanJean-Marc Nattier was the second son of portrait painter Marc Nattier (1642 – 1705) and Miniature Painter Marie Courtois (1655 – 1703).
It was from his father that he received his first art instruction and from his uncle Jean Jouvenet (1644 – 1717), a historical painter.
In 1703 at the age of 18 he enrolled at the French Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) which was founded in Paris in 1648.
During his studies he spent much of his time copying pictures in the Luxembourg Palace (built from 1615 – 1645 to a design from French Architect Salomon de Brosse (1571 – 1626)); and to making a series of drawing of the Marie de Médici painting cycle of 24 paintings created by Peter Paul Rubens between 1622 and 1624.
Then in 1710 a publication of engravings based on the drawing he had done on the paintings made him famous; from there he made his way to Amsterdam the Netherlands, where Russian Monarch Peter the Great (1682 – 1725) was staying, and painted portraits of the tsar and the Empress Catherine (1684 – 1727).
Though Jean aspired to be a historical painter, creating compositions like the “Battle of Pultawa” and others from 1715 to 1720; the financial collapse of 1720 changed all that as it left him in financial ruin, forcing hime to devote his artistic talents to painting portraits; as this was a more lucrative venue.
Over time he revived the allegorical portrait, which incorporated living persons as mythological Greco-Roman Goddess or other mythological figures.
