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La infanta Catalina Micaela fue la menor de las dos hijas habidas en el matrimonio del rey Felipe II con su tercera esposa, Isabel de Valois. Nació en Madrid en 1567. Junto a su hermana mayor, Isabel Clara Eugenia, ocupó un lugar preferente en los sentimientos del rey, su padre, como denotan sus relaciones epistolares. Como Infanta de España, tenía reservado además un puesto preciso en la política
Pantoja de la Cruz continued the type of court portrait formulated by Sánchez Coello in the mid-sixteenth century. The severe, distant image projected by the sitter, possibly a servant in the Alcázar in Madrid, is characteristic of portraiture of this period, contrasting with the expressive intensity of El Greco’s Toledan male sitters. Signed and dated.
The king is portrayed in armour, beside a tent; the image is not particularly representative of the sitter, whose tastes tended more towards regal pomp and religious piety. The composition follows earlier traditions, though with certain features characteristic of Pantoja de la Cruz: a rather geometric rendering of the figure, an impassive, somewhat distant expression, and a fascination with the de
Joanna, the daughter of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal was born in 1535, and later married her cousin Joao Manuel, prince of Brazil. On the death of her husband in 1554, and having soon after given birth to their son, Don Sebastián, she left Portugal and returned to Spain, where she died in 1573.
A fire in El Pardo Palace on March 13, 1604, destroyed the portraits in the Hall of Kings. These portraits had been painted by the finest artists of the time, including Titian, Antonio Moro, Alonso Sánchez Coello, and Sofonisba Anguisciola. Encased in stucco frames attached to the walls of the gallery, which had been organized by Sánchez Coello at the behest of Philip II, these portr
