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Sofonisba Anguissola arrived in Spain in 1559 to serve as a lady-in-waiting to Philip II’s third wife, Elizabeth of Valois (1546-1568). A renowned painter in her native Cremona, she held no official post related to her profession at the Spanish court, but we know that she made numerous portraits of the Royal Family. Those works reveal her understanding of Spanish court portraiture, but they also c
Though she drew on models characteristic of Spanish court portraiture, the soft modelling, diffuse lighting and subtle brushwork are distinctive features of Sofonisba’s own style, and of the Lombard painting of her day. Sofonisba achieved great renown, and worked at the Spanish court from 1559 to 1573. This may therefore have been her last commission in Spain, intended as a companion piece to her
