Os retratos de Maria Isabel e Maria Francisca de Bragan a, de Nicolas-Antoine Taunay

Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, French landscape painter, produced also several portraits during his stay at the Rio de Janeiro Court. In this city, in 1816, he paints the queen Carlota Joaquina and all her daughters. In this group, two portraits have a very special way: the paintings still today catalogued as Maria Francisca and Maria Teresa, but probably being Maria Isabel and Maria Francisca de Assis - princesses that, in this year, left Brazil to marry the Spanish King Fernando VII, and his brother Carlos Maria Isidro de Bourbon. In this article, beyond to describe these portraits (and analyse the identities of the portrayed princesses), I analyse their functions in the Court society and the mains artists of this gender in Europe. I will discuss, as well, the hypothesis about the Taunay choices. In this sense, I will analyse the possible circulation of the typologies of portrait between Italy, Portugal, Spain and France, understanding these productions by Taunay and the functions occupied by these portraits in the political relations between Brazil and Europe.