Daughter of the Empress María Teresa Habsburg and the Emperor Francisco I of Lorena, María Carolina Habsburg-Lorena (Vienna, 1752-1814) married Ferdinand IV of Naples in 1768, and bore seventeen children. According to Benedetto Croce, Napoleon called her “the only man in the kingdom of Naples”. She is shown here sumptuously dressed and bejeweled, against a landscape of distant trees and mountains. To the left is a blue curtain and part of a column. This work was commissioned by Charles III, her father-in-law. Documentation in the Royal Palace of Madrid states that Mengs made the portrait after a miniature. If so, it may date to the same year as the archduchess´s marriage. But Mengs also may have painted this while in Naples (1772-1773) (Text drawn from Luna Fernández, Juan J., The Majesty of Spain, Jackson, Mississippi, 2001, p. 71).

The Majesty of Spain. Royal Collections From the Museo del P, Jackson, Mississipi Commission For Internati, 2001, p.71