Infanta Maria Ludovica of Spain

This is a betrothal portrait. Maria Ludovica, a daughter of Charles III of Spain, sat for Mengs in Madrid around 1764, promised to Pietro Leopoldo, a younger son of Empress Maria Theresa, who was destined to rule Tuscany. Among the pearls on her wrist is a bracelet set with a miniature portrait of the bridegroom.

The wedding was celebrated at Innsbruck in the summer of 1765, and the festivities ended in mourning when the groom's father, Emperor Francis I, died there in August. She went on to Florence as grand duchess, then to Vienna as empress in 1790, and bore 16 children. In 1795, three years after her death, her eldest son, by then Emperor Francis II, bought this portrait for 300 ducats.