Portrait of Diane-Gabrielle Damas de Thianges Mancini
by VOET, Jacob Ferdinand, Oil on canvas, 77 x 64 cm
The Mazarinettes were the seven Italian nieces of Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661), hence this surname. They were the daughters of two of his four sisters. The cardinal had his nieces, two Martinozzi and five Mancini, come over from Italy at different times between 1647 and 1653, when they were all still fairly young, aged between six and thirteen.
The cardinal used these nieces (and also three nephews) to enlarge his power and influence in the highest circles of French and Italian society.
Diane-Gabrielle Damas de Thianges Mancini (1656-1715) was well-known for her beauty. She was the sister-in-law of the Mancini sisters. In 1670, at the age of fourteen, she married Philippe Mancini (1641-1707, the twenty-nine year old Duke of Nevers, nephew of the deceased Cardinal Mazarin and brother of the Mancini sisters (his two brothers died at a young age).