| Portrait of Isabella of Portugal | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Titian |
| Year | 1548 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 117 cm× 98 cm(46 in× 39 in) |
| Location | Museo del Prado, Madrid |
| Website | Museo del Prado |
The Portrait of Isabella of Portugal is an oil-on-canvas portrait of Isabella of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress by Titian dating to 1548. It was part of the Spanish royal collection and is now in the Museo del Prado, in Madrid. [1]
The subject is Empress Isabella of Portugal (1503–1539), the beloved wife of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, mother of Philip II of Spain and daughter of Manuel I of Portugal. Titian painted her after her death, using a mediocre painting for reference. [2] For the rest of his life, Charles took the painting with him on all his travels.
The portrait follows a classic scheme already used by Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, in which the model sits next to a window opening on a landscape. The landscape gives depth to the composition, and its greenish and bluish tones provide a contrast to the interior scene dominated by warm colors. The figure shows some stiffness, possibly related to the concept of majesty as used in imperial iconography.
She wears a rich red dress and gold brocade and trimmed with rhinestones. It is decorated also with flashy jewelry: a necklace of pearls with a clasp at the chest with gems hanging from another teardrop pearl, a ring on her right hand, and a jewel-topped headdress. Her rigid hairstyle, very fashionable at the time, is made up with braids. The Empress holds an open book in her left hand, perhaps a missal or prayer book, and looks at a distant point with a distant expression. [3]
Tiziano Vecellio, Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian, was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, 'from Cadore', taken from his native region.
The Museo del Prado, officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on the former Spanish royal collection, and the single best collection of Spanish art. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819, it also contains important collections of other types of works. The numerous works by Francisco Goya, the single most extensively represented artist, as well as by Hieronymus Bosch, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, and Diego Velázquez, are some of the highlights of the collection. Velázquez and his keen eye and sensibility were also responsible for bringing much of the museum's fine collection of Italian masters to Spain, now one of the largest outside of Italy.
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.
Leone Leoni was an Italian sculptor of international outlook who travelled in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Leoni is regarded as the finest of the Cinquecento medallists. He made his reputation in commissions he received from the Habsburg monarchs Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Philip II of Spain. His usual medium was bronze, although he also worked in marble and alabaster, carved gemstones and probably left some finished work in wax, as well as designing coins. He mainly produced portraits, and was repeatedly used by the Spanish, and also the Austrian, Habsburgs.
The Venetian painter Titian and his workshop made at least six versions of the same composition showing Danaë, painted between about 1544 and the 1560s. The scene is based on the mythological princess Danaë, as – very briefly – recounted by the Roman poet Ovid, and at greater length by Boccaccio. She was isolated in a bronze tower following a prophecy that her firstborn would eventually kill her father. Although aware of the consequences, Danaë was seduced and became pregnant by Zeus, who, inflamed by lust, descended from Mount Olympus to seduce her in the form of a shower of gold.
A composition of Venus and Adonis by the Venetian Renaissance artist Titian has been painted a number of times, by Titian himself, by his studio assistants and by others. In all there are some thirty versions that may date from the 16th century, the nudity of Venus undoubtedly accounting for this popularity. It is unclear which of the surviving versions, if any, is the original or prime version, and a matter of debate how much involvement Titian himself had with surviving versions. There is a precise date for only one version, that in the Prado in Madrid, which is documented in correspondence between Titian and Philip II of Spain in 1554. However, this appears to be a later repetition of a composition first painted a considerable time earlier, possibly as early as the 1520s.
The Worship of Venus is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist Titian completed between 1518 and 1519, housed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. It describes a Roman rite of worship conducted in honour of the goddess Venus each 1 April. On this occasion, women would make offerings to representations of the goddess so as to cleanse "every blemish on their bodies".
Equestrian Portrait of Charles V is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian. Created between April and September 1548 while Titian was at the imperial court of Augsburg, it is a tribute to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, following his victory in the April 1547 Battle of Mühlberg against the Protestant armies.
Isabella of Portugal was the empress consort of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, and Duke of Burgundy. She was Queen of Spain and Germany, and Lady of the Netherlands from 10 March 1526 until her death in 1539, and became Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Italy in February 1530. She acted as regent of Spain during her husband's long absences.
The Portrait of Charles V is an oil on canvas portrait of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor by Titian, painted in 1548. As with the Equestrian Portrait of Charles V, it was commissioned by Charles during Titian's stay at the imperial court at Augsburg. It is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany.
The Portrait of Charles V with a Dog is a portrait by Titian of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor with a hunting dog, created in 1533. It passed from Charles to the Spanish royal collection, from which it came to the Museo del Prado, in Madrid.
The Entombment is a 1559 oil-on-canvas painting by the Venetian painter Titian, commissioned by Philip II of Spain. It depicts the burial of Jesus in a stone sarcophagus, which is decorated with depictions of Cain and Abel and the binding of Isaac. The painting measures 137 cm × 175 cm and is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Titian made several other paintings depicting the same subject, including a similar version of 1572 given as a gift to Antonio Pérez and now also in the Prado, and an earlier version of c.1520 made for the Duke of Mantua and now in the Louvre.
The Bacchanal of the Andrians or The Andrians is an oil painting by Titian. It is signed "TICIANUS F.[aciebat]" and is dated to 1523–1526.
Venus and Musician refers to a series of paintings by the Venetian Renaissance painter Titian and his workshop.
Portrait of Lavinia Vecellio is an oil on wood portrait by Titian, from c. 1545. It is believed to depict his daughter Lavinia. It is held in the Museo di Capodimonte, in Naples.
Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga is a painting by Titian, who signed it Ticianus f.. Today in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, it portrays Federico II, Duke of Mantua who married in 1529; the portrait may have been commissioned for the occasion. The dog, a Maltese, is a symbol of faithfulness.
The Castello Roganzuolo Altarpiece, Castello Roganzuolo Polyptych or Madonna and Child with Saint Peter and Saint Paul is a painting by Titian, commissioned in 1543 by the leading citizens of Castello Roganzuolo, Province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy. It is now in the Albino Luciani Diocesan Museum in Vittorio Veneto.
Portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere is a 1538 painting by Titian, now in the Uffizi in Florence alongside its pair, Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere, showing Eleonora's husband. It formed the prototype for some of his later portraits, such as that of Isabella of Portugal.
The Spanish royal collection of art was almost entirely built up by the monarchs of the Habsburg family who ruled Spain from 1516 to 1700, and then the Bourbons. They included a number of kings with a serious interest in the arts, who were patrons of a series of major artists: Charles V and Philip II were patrons of Titian, Philip IV appointed Velázquez as court painter, and Goya had a similar role at the court of Charles IV.
Portrait of Charles V or Portrait of a Man Wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece is an oil on canvas painting by Titian, from c. 1549. It is held now in the Museo di Capodimonte, in Naples.
