Dimensions
244 x 163 x 26mm
Marie and Hortense Mancini arrived in Paris at the ages of 14 and 9 respectively. The French court into which the girls were drawn was about to become the glittering center of European cultural and diplomatic life. Both sisters wrestled with the requirements of their age. Hortense, married a dull middle-aged man and soon determined to leave him. It was a scandal, unprecedented at the time, the first divorce to be a media sensation. Marie too was fed up with her husbands attentions, asking him to agree to a separation of beds, which became a stepping stone to her abandoning him for a life on the road with her sister. The two women traveled between Rome, Paris, and Madrid. Hortense was a famous gambler, the women often dressed and passed as men, and the scandal of their behavior became a European epic.
