Joanna of Austria (1535-73) was the daughter of Emperor Charles V, and sister of King Philip II of Spain. In 1552, she married her first cousin, the Portuguese Prince John Manuel (Joao Manuel). The prince died in January 1554, days before Joanna gave birth to their son, Sebastian, who would become King of Portugal from 1568 to 1578. In July 1554, Joanna returned to Spain to serve as regent in the name of her brother, Philip II, who was absent from Spain until September 1559. As she never again set foot in Portugal, the princess would only see her son in paintings and drawings sent from Lisbon. Characterised by her strong religious convictions and influenced by the future Saint Francis Borgia, Joanna entered the Jesuit Order in 1554 under the name of Mateo Sánchez. In 1555 she founded the convent of the Order of Saint Clare known as Las Descalzas Reales (literally, discalced or barefoot royals) in Madrid, in the same residence in which she was born. She resided in the convent from 1564 until her death in 1573, and was buried there. Unlike two earlier portraits of Joanna by Alonso Sánchez Coello from c.1557 (Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck; and Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao), this portrait was made when she was no longer regent, during the Flemish painter Anthonis Mor´s second sojourn in Spain between September 1559 and October 1561. The princess commissioned this portrait personally, and it remained in her possession until her death. In 1573 the painting was documented as the work of Anthonis Mor in Joanna´s collection at the convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid. It entered the Royal Collections under Philip II. In 1600 it was recorded in the treasury of the Real Alcázar de Madrid (the residence that preceded the current Royal Palace in Madrid, which was destroyed by fire in 1734), and in 1854 it entered the Museo del Prado. According to contemporary accounts, Princess Joanna was strong-willed and a skilled ruler. In 1559, the Venetian ambassador to the Habsburg court, Federico Badoero, referred to the masculine quality of her character in the following terms: as regards her will, it is so virile that she reveals the sentiments of a man more than those of a woman. As Annemarie Jordan-Gschwend points out, although Joanna was renowned in Spain and abroad for her devotion, works of charity and her love of prayer and seclusion, she was nevertheless also very involved in the political life of the Spanish and Portuguese courts. Mor´s full-length portrait presents Joanna standing in a three-quarter view, looking towards her right. She wears a black taffeta gown in accordance with her status as a widow, a white snood that gathers her hair behind, and a veil draped over her shoulders and tied in front, as in Sánchez Coello´s portrait in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao. Hanging from the veil is a small golden pendant featuring a figure, which Jordan-Gschwend has proposed may be a shepherd with his crook. Others have interpreted the figure as Hercules with his club, in which case -as an image of the mythical founder of the Spanish monarchy- it would serve as a dynastic symbol. Joanna´s sumptuous dress, jewellery, cordovan leather gloves and lace-trimmed handkerchief, all indicate her rank as a princess, while the empty chair on which she rests her right hand symbolises the throne. Joanna´s stance is similar to that of her brother in Mor´s portrait in the palace of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Philip II in Armour 1557. Mor has placed Joanna in the close foreground, standing in the light before a dark background. The low angle from which she is framed and the slimness of her figure accentuate the sense of majesty in this portrait, which is one of the Flemish painter´s best (Silva, P.: Portrait of Spain. Masterpieces from the Prado, Queensland Art Gallery-Art Exhibitions Australia, 2012, p. 80).