Karl Emanuel II., Herzog von Savoyen (?)

Gascar employs a restrained palette and smooth brushwork typical of French Baroque portraiture, emphasizing the dignified posture of the duke. The composition balances the figure against a muted interior backdrop, allowing the textures of fabric and the animal’s fur to convey material richness without overt dramatization.

A French artist who spent a decade at the English court of Charles II before returning to Paris and later establishing himself in Rome, Gascar produced this portrait during his mature period. The painting entered the Alte Pinakothek’s holdings in the nineteenth century, where it remains on display.

Portraits of European aristocracy in the 1660s often combined personal likeness with emblematic props. The inclusion of a dog aligns with contemporary conventions that linked the sitter’s virtues, faithfulness and noble bearing, to the animal’s attributes, while the attire reflects the sartorial fashions of Savoyard courts.