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After the completion of the sculptures for the high altar in the Capilla Mayor (1591), Pompeo Leoni was entrusted by Philip II with the bronze figures destined for the monuments of Charles V and Philip II, to the left and right of the Capilla Mayor. The two projected groups comprised (left) Charles V kneeling at a prie-dieu with his wife, the Empress Isabella, and behind, his sisters, Eleonora of France and Mary of Hungary, and his daughter, Mary, wife of the Emperor Maximilian, and (right) Philip II kneeling at a prie-dieu with his fourth wife, Anne of Austria, and behind, Isabella of Valois and Mary of Portugal, respectively third and first wives of King Philip II, and his son, Don Carlos.
The work was undertaken in Madrid. The figures were completed and set in place by Pompeo Leoni in May 1598 shortly before the death of Philip II. The two tombs represent a synthesis of the kneeling figures which occur in many earlier Spanish tombs with the style of bronze portraiture evolved in Milan by Leone Leoni.
The picture shows the interior of Capilla Mayor with the high altar in the centre and the monuments of Charles V and Philip II at left and right, respectively.
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