Queen Elisabeth of Valois
Ca. 1605. Oil on canvas.Room 055
As he was often required to do, Pantoja de la Cruz here copied an original by Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1535-1625) of Cremona; it was her first portrait of the young queen. It is an attractive adaptation to Spanish conventions, but using warmer, lighter colours; a marmot-fur stole has also been added to the queen’s costume.
In this three-quarter portrait Queen Isabel de Valois (1546-1568) wears a black velvet gown with round sleeves from which her slashed red silk undersleeves embroidered with gold and silver thread peep out. On her head is a tilted flat cap which, like the buttons adorning the gown, is decorated with diamonds and rubies. The French queen would have dressed in this manner for solemn events, embellishing her outfit with jewellery such as the necklace, belt, and double string of pearls depicted here. Her complex hairstyle is interwoven with pearls and from one side hangs a pendant consisting of a diamond, a ruby, and a pearl. This piece of jewellery would be inherited by her daughter Isabella Clara Eugenia, who also had her portrait painted wearing it. As was very common practice in the sixteenth century, the underside of the diamonds is dyed black. Protruding from the collar of her dress is a ruff sewn with small, flat gold beads, which she sports in other portraits. The gown is adorned with red ribbons with gold aiglets set with small Indian rubies and pearls, which are described in her inventory.
Although the Prince Don Carlos was still alive at the time the original of this portrait was painted, his mental instability made a new male heir desirable and producing one became an essential duty for the new queen. This aspect seems to be alluded to by the gold marten’s head she holds in one hand, which is attached to the gold chain embellished with diamonds and coloured enamel in her other hand. The properties of this animal of the weasel family, described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, included conceiving and giving birth through the ear (or mouth). The queen’s account books mention several diamond-studded martens’ heads of this kind with gold claws and ruby eyes, which were fitted to pelts in place of the head and paws. Although it was seldom depicted in Spanish paintings, this accessory is found in Italian portraits -a tradition that influenced Sofonisba’s formative years- and points to her authorship of this work.
Isabel de Valois became Philip II’s third wife in 1560, whereupon Sofonisba joined her service as a lady-in-waiting and painting instructor. From this point onwards she made various portraits of her mistress. The likeness she made of the queen in 1561 was considered the finest of them all. Maria Kusche identifies the picture in question as the original of the portrait studied here, of which several copies were made. However, the fact that pieces of jewellery similar to the ones depicted in this portrait do not appear in the queen’s accounting records until 1565-66 may provide a clue to the execution of Sofonisba’s prototype, which was painted for the portrait gallery in the Royal Place of El Pardo, then nearing completion. Gonzalo Argote de Molina states in his 1582 description of the gallery that the El Pardo portrait of Isabel de Valois was by Sofonisba. As it perished in the fire of 1604, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz was commissioned to make a new copy around 1605. The copy is mentioned in subsequent inventories, such as that of 1653, as still being in the new portrait gallery at El Pardo. Its presence there can be traced, albeit increasingly vaguely, until the end of the seventeenth century.
Pérez de Tudela, Almudena, Atribuido a Juan Pantoja de la Cruz según Sofonisba Anguissola. La reina Isabel de Valois, tercera esposa de Felipe II' En:. Historia de dos pintoras: Sofonisba Anguissola y Lavinia Fontana, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado,, 2019, p.143-145 nº 25.
