Portrait of Princess Smaragda (?) Maria (?) Cantemir
Early 1720s
- Canvas, oil. 90 х 70
Provenance: collection of Nikolai Bantysh-Kamensky; later – Moscow State Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (until 1920s)- Музей «Новый Иерусалим»
Maria Cantemir (Maria Kantemirova; 1700–1757)
Daughter of the Moldavian Prince Dimitrie Cantemir and Kassandra Cantacuzene who both fled to Russia; sister of the Russian poet Antiochus Cantemir, and mistress of Peter the Great.
The portrait’s attribution is based on a faded inscription that survived on the back of the canvas saying “Princess Smaragda Cantemir;” however, this attribution is questionable: the youngest daughter of Dimitrie Cantemir, the prince of Moldavia, who moved to Russia to serve Peter the Great in 1711, Princess Smaragda died when she was sixteen (1703–1719); the person depicted is obviously older. The confusion might have taken place at the end of the 18th century when the Cantemir family line ended, their property was signed over “to the State,” and their family portraits were given away to guardians and new owners of their homes. It is much more likely that the person depicted is actually the eldest daughter of Cantemir, Maria (1700–1754). The theory is supported by the model’s age and family jewels she is wearing: traditionally, diamonds would belong to the eldest daughter.