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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, Sebastián, 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 St Francis Borgia, Joanna entered the Jesuit Order in 1554. 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.
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. 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. Hanging from the veil is a small golden pendant featuring a figure. 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.
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