Portrait of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia is a 1599 oil-on-canvas painting of Isabella Clara Eugenia by the Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola, identified in 1992 by Maria Kusche. [1] Owned by the Museo del Prado, it currently hangs in the Spanish Embassy in Paris.
In 1609 Pedro Paolo De Ribera referred to Anguissola producing a portrait of infanta Isabella during her stop in Genoa en route to Brussels in June 1599 [2] He states that infanta "daily spent long hours chatting [with the artist], remembering things which had had happened to her in her tender years". Anguissola was a portraitist for the Spanish court and also produced a portrait of Isabella's mother Elisabeth of Valois.
Isabella is shown wearing a sumptuous court dress, a large pleated ruff, a pearl necklace, a gold chain with a figure of Francis of Assisi or Anthony of Padua and a girdle studded with pearls, rubies and diamonds, resting her right hand on the back of a chair and her left hand holding a lace-edged handkerchief. Profoundly religious, she spent her last years in the "Descalzas Reales" monastery and in the habit of a nun, as shown in her later portrait by Rubens. [3]
Isabella only stopped in Genoa a few days, not long enough to complete the portrait, and so Isabella requested that she would "sent it to her en route [once it was complete], as she did". [4] However, in the end, it seems the work was not sent directly to Isabella in Vienna or Brussels but to Madrid as a gift from Isabella to her step-brother, the future Philip III of Spain. The work is mentioned in a inventory of works at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid compiled after Philip II's death, though without an attribution. [5]
The work was probably one of the works confiscated in 1835 from Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain for supporting the Carlist cause. In 1865 the work appeared as number 212 in Catalogo del Museo de la Trinidad de Cruzada Villaamil with an attribution to the Spanish painter Alonso Sánchez Coello. That catalogue also featured a portrait of a man of identical dimensions attributed to Coello. In 1861 the Portrait of Infanta Isabella and the other paintings were restored to Sebastian. In 1868 it passed to its current owner and was first hung at the Embassy in 1882.
Sofonisba Anguissola, also known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family. She received a well-rounded education that included the fine arts, and her apprenticeship with local painters set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art. As a young woman, Anguissola traveled to Rome where she was introduced to Michelangelo, who immediately recognized her talent, and to Milan, where she painted the Duke of Alba. The Spanish queen, Elizabeth of Valois, was a keen amateur painter and in 1559 Anguissola was recruited to go to Madrid as her tutor, with the rank of lady-in-waiting. She later became an official court painter to the king, Philip II, and adapted her style to the more formal requirements of official portraits for the Spanish court. After the queen's death, Philip helped arrange an aristocratic marriage for her. She moved to Sicily, and later Pisa and Genoa, where she continued to practice as a leading portrait painter.
Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569–1622) was a Flemish painter, son of Frans Pourbus the Elder and grandson of Pieter Pourbus. He was born in Antwerp and died in Paris. He is also referred to as "Frans II".
Isabella Clara Eugenia, sometimes referred to as Clara Isabella Eugenia, was sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands in the Low Countries and the north of modern France with her husband, Archduke Albert VII of Austria.
Alonso Sánchez Coello was an Iberian portrait painter of the Spanish and Portuguese Renaissance. He is mainly known for his portrait paintings executed in a style which combines the objectivity of the Flemish tradition with the sensuality of Venetian painting. He was court painter to Philip II.
Juan Pantoja de La Cruz was a Spanish painter, one of the best representatives of the Spanish school of court painters. He worked for Philip II and Philip III. The Museo del Prado contains examples of his severe portraiture style.
Lady in a Fur Wrap is an oil painting now generally attributed to Alonso Sánchez Coello, dated to 1577-1579 and now held at the Pollok House in Glasgow.
Jooris van der Straeten, known as Jorge de la Rúa in Spain and in France as Georges van der Straeten, was a Flemish portrait and history painter. Originally from Ghent, he travelled abroad and became portrait painter to the ruling houses in Portugal, Spain and France. A polyglot, van der Straeten was a versatile courtier, who worked primarily as a portraitist for queens.
Self-Portrait at a Spinet is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola, from c. 1555. It is held in the National Museum of Capodimonte, in Naples.
The Chess Game is a painting of c. 1530 by Giulio Campi, a Renaissance painter from Cremona. Since 1970, it has been in the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica in Turin.
The Portrait of Elena Anguissola, dated to 1551, is one of the earliest paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola. An oil painting on canvas, it is in the Southampton City Art Gallery, which acquired it in 1936.
The Child Bitten by A Lobster is a drawing by the Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola, executed in chalk and pencil on light blue paper, and dated to around 1554. It is in the collection of the Museo di Capodimonte, in Naples.
The Game of Chess is an oil-on-canvas painting executed ca. 1555 by Italian Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola. Anguissola was 23 years old when she painted it.
Self-Portrait is a small oil-on-panel painting by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola, signed and dated 1554 on the open book held by the artist. The portrait is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, in Vienna.
Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia and Infanta Catherine Michaela is an oil-on-canvas painting created during 1569–1570 by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola, now in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. It shows Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catherine Michaela, two daughters of Philip II of Spain and his third wife Elizabeth of Valois.
Portrait of Minerva Anguissola is a c. 1564 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
Portrait of Elisabeth of Valois is an oil-on-canvas painting executed c.1561–1565 by the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Portrait of Bianca Ponzoni Anguissola or Lady in White is an oil-on canvas-painting created in 1557 by the Italian Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola. It is a portrait of the artist's mother. It is now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. It is securely identified as the artist's mother, since it reuses two elements from The Game of Chess, Lucia's pearl headdress and Minerva/Elena's necklace Under the arm of the chair are the signature and date "Sophonisba Angussola Virgo F. 15.5.7".
Portrait of Massimiliano II Stampa is a c.1558 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola, now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA. It was previously misattributed to Giovan Battista Moroni, possibly due to stylistic similarities with Moroni's The Knight in Black.
Excursion in the Countryside of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia is an oil on canvas painting by Flemish artists Jan Brueghel the Elder and Joos de Momper. It was painted in the first quarter of the 17th century, and is housed at the Museum of Prado, in Madrid.
Maria Kusche was a Spanish art historian of German descent, a specialist on painters at the royal court of Philip II of Spain, in particular Sofonisba Anguissola, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, and Alonso Sánchez Coello.
