Jacob Ferdinand Voet (1639-1689),
• Was a Flemish portrait painter.
• He had an international career that brought him to Italy and France, where he made portraits for an elite clientele.
• Voet was born in Antwerp as the son of the painter Elias Voet.
• He was one of the fifteen children.
• Jacob left his native Antwerp and travelled to Rome where he resided from 1663 to 1680.
• In Rome Voet lived with the painter-engraver Cornelis Bloemaert.
• In 1671-1672 Voet received a commission from Cardinal Chigi to paint portraits of young woman who were prominent in Roman society.
• He created a first series of 37 portraits of the most enchanting women of Rome (‘Galleria delle Belle’).
• He was banned from the city by Pope Innocent XI who was scandalized by Voet's portraits of women portrayed with unseemly décolleté.
• He left Rome and is recorded in Milan in 1680.
• He was in Florence in 1681 where he worked for the Medici family.
• Voet painted a few portraits in a genre that was popular in Flanders at the time: the portrait in garland paintings.
• They typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait.
