Huwelijk tussen Jozef I van Portugal en Marianne Victoria van Bourbon 1727

Leonard Schenk’s etching depicts the marriage by proxy of Joseph I of Portugal and Marianne Victoria of Bourbon, which took place on October 11, 1725. In the 18th century, marriages were less about love and more about solidifying political alliances. In this image, gender, power, and diplomacy intersect. Marianne Victoria, a Spanish Infanta, was only seven years old at the time of the ceremony. Joseph, the Prince of Brazil, was sixteen. This alliance was meant to secure peace between Portugal and Spain, countries whose wealth relied heavily on their colonies and the exploitation of enslaved peoples. The figures are neatly arranged, each playing their part in a meticulously planned spectacle. This marriage was a matter of state, a dynastic strategy enacted on the bodies of two young people. Schenk's print invites us to consider how personal lives, particularly those of women, were often secondary to political and economic imperatives.