Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia
Alonso Sánchez Coello, 1577
Sánchez Coello, a portrait painter at the court of Philip II, shows his daughter Isabel Clara Eugenia at thirteen, when the young infanta already held a prominent place in the royal household and would later govern the Netherlands. She stands in three-quarter view, her right arm resting on the back of a velvet chair with braided trim, while her left hand hangs at her side holding a lace-edged handkerchief. Three rings set with coloured stones, a pearl headdress topped with a flower and a white silk gown embroidered with gold show the painter's close attention to jewellery and fabric textures. A dark background throws the figure into relief. The work follows the manner of Antonio Moro and the Venetian painting known through Titian. Although she looks straight out at the viewer, her expression is distant and reveals little of her character, a common trait of this kind of courtly portrait, which later painters such as Pantoja de la Cruz, Bartolomé González and, ultimately, Velázquez would cultivate.
- Painter
- Alonso Sánchez Coello
- Date
- 1577
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 116 × 102 cm
- Museum
- Museo del Prado, Madrid
- Movement
- Mannerism, Spanish Renaissance painting
- Genre
- portrait
- Depicts
- Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, gemstone
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