Titian - Portrait of Isabella of Portugal, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V 1548
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Portrait of Isabella of Portugal, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V 1548
117x98cm oil on canvas
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain
The image is only being used for informational and educational purposes
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From Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid:
The portraits that Titian painted of Isabella (1503-1539), daughter of King Manuel of Portugal and wife of Charles V from 1526, constitute one of the most moving episodes within Renaissance art. When the empress died, Charles found that he did not have her portrait, so he tried to recover the one that his deceased wife had sent years earlier to Margaret of Austria. In November 1539 he received this portrait from his sister Mary, but was not happy with it as he considered that it did not resemble his wife. It was probably at this point that he had the idea of commissioning a portrait from Titian if he could find a suitable model. In 1543 Charles sent to the artist in Busseto a small portrait of Isabella probably by William Scrots (Potsdam, National Museum), molto simile at vero, benché di trivial` pennello, according to Aretino. In 1545 Titian finished a portrait of Isabella dressed in black with flowers in her lap and with the imperial crown behind her; it was destroyed in the fire in the Palace of El Pardo in 1604 and is known through copies and prints. Charles had it brought to Augsburg in 1547 so that the artist could retouch the nose. This lost portrait acted as a model for the present version, also painted in Augsburg and which we know, from a letter from the artist to Granvelle, was completed on 1 September 1548. In the letters, Titian also refers to a double portrait of Charles and Isabella of which there is a copy by Rubens (Madrid, Fundacion Casa de Alba Collection), and which was a curious combination of the seated portrait of Charles (Munich, Alte Pinakothek) and the first one of the empress.