The Female Perspective II

The following sections centre on Mariana of Austria, Elisabeth of Bourbon and Christina of Sweden. Together with Isabel Clara Eugenia, they are notable as artistic promoters of this period, with the closest links to the collections of the Museo del Prado.

Presented in an order to make the route as easy to follow as possible, the second section examines the construction and evolution of the image of power of one of the most important figures in the context of international politics in the seventeenth century: Mariana of Austria. Queen regent of Spain from 1665 to 1675, Mariana assumed the functions of governor as a widow, as did other women of her dynasty, but with the crucial difference that she exercised power alone, governing in the name of her son, Charles II. The subject of significant criticism due to her gender, her foreign origins, and her lack of political background, Mariana experienced powerful opposition from the outset of her regency. In this clearly adverse context, and through the portraits of her in the Museum’s collection, it is fascinating to see how she created her own image of power, which helped to legitimise her political position and strengthen her authority at court.

The third section analyses one of the most important artistic commissions of those initiated by Elisabeth of Bourbon as queen consort. This group of at least twenty-six paintings was created to decorate the recently restored Torre de la Reina in the Alcázar in Madrid. The importance of the project, for which Clara Isabel Eugenia acted as mediator, lies in a range of aspects that make it exceptional as a whole. First is the large number of works that it comprises and the quality of the artists who produced it; second is the significance of the works, their iconographies carefully chosen by the project’s mediator. The third aspect is the presence within it of the largest group of works attributed to Rubens to arrive at the Spanish court, with the exception of The Apostles series. Finally, the group offers us the opportunity to explore the artistic and cultural exchanges taking place between the courts of Baroque Europe and between three of the most fascinating women of seventeenth-century Europe: Marie de Médicis, Isabel Clara Eugenia, and Elisabeth of Bourbon.

The fourth section, which concludes this route, is devoted to Christina of Sweden, a remarkable lover of art and culture and one of the most important collectors of the early modern age. Queen of Sweden from 1632 to 1654, her abdication and conversion to Catholicism brought her close to the Spanish court of Philip IV when she sought the king’s support over these matters. In this context, she gifted him some of the most imposing portraits painted of her, as well as other works of great value such as the panels of Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer. Having settled in Rome through the mediation of the Spanish monarch, Christina assembled one of the most important art collections of the day at the Palazzo Riario, in which her sculpture collection was particularly celebrated for the selection and rarity of the works. Many of them were acquired by Philip V and Isabella Farnese and today comprise the most important group of classical sculptures in the Museo del Prado.