ANGUISSOLA, Sofonisba
(b. ca. 1530, Cremona, d. 1625, Palermo)

Isabel de Valois holding a Portrait of Philip II

1561-65
Oil on canvas, 206 x 123 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

This portrait is a full-length likeness of Philip II's third wife, Queen Isabel de Valois. She wears a black gown with pointed sleeves and a long train curled around her body and billows at the back. Poking out from beneath her hanging sleeves, held in place with ruby and diamond buttons and lined in white fabric, are silver and gold undersleeves. The one-piece gown is decorated with applied velvet in different textures and shades of black and is fastened in the front with pearl toggles. Her headdress consists of many jewels intertwined with her hair, which, according to reports, was styled this way almost daily. She also sports a necklace and a belt of diamonds and pearls. The queen holds a miniature of her husband, and beside her is a polychromed jasper column, characteristic of these state portraits.

Formerly, the portrait was attributed to Sánchez Coello.