Name: FOLLOWER OF TIZIANO VECELLIO, CALLED TITIAN
Brand: Portrait of Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539), three-quarter length, seated, with the imperial crown
Price: 170000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

FOLLOWER OF TIZIANO VECELLIO, CALLED TITIAN
Portrait of Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539), three-quarter length, seated, with the imperial crown
oil on canvas, unframed
41¹⁄₂ x 33¹⁄₂ in. (105.5 x 85 cm.)

Pepoli collection, Bologna.
Private collection, Florence, by 1903.
Anonymous sale; Hugo Helbing, Munich, 7 December 1903, lot 31, as Flemish School.
Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955), New York, by whom gifted on 1 November 1923 to the Hispanic Society of America.

G. Gronau, 'Titian's Portrait of the Empress Isabella', Burlington Magazine, II, no. 6, August 1903, pp. 280-283 and 285.
(Probably) A.L. Mayer, 'Anotaciones a algunos cuadros del Museo del Prado', Boletín de la sociedad español de excursiones, XLII, December 1934, pp. 296-298.
H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, II, The Portraits, London, 1971, p. 201, under L-20, as a copy.
J. Cox-Rearick, 'Power-Dressing at the Courts of Cosimo de' Medici and François I: The "moda alla spagnola" of Spanish Consorts Eléonore d'Autriche and Eleonora di Toledo', Artibus et Historiae, XXX, no. 60, 2009, pp. 43, 53, 56, and 63, fig. 15, note 18, as a copy.

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Lot Essay

Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian (1485/90-1576) was commissioned by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, to paint a portrait of his late wife, Isabella of Portugal. The commission resulted in three paintings: a seated portrait of the Empress in a black gown with the imperial crown, now destroyed; a second portrait depicting her in a red and gold dress, seated near a window with a landscape beyond (Museo del Prado, Madrid; inv. no. P000415), and a double portrait of the royal couple, now lost, known through a copy by Rubens (Fundación Casa de Alba Collection, Madrid).

The present painting is modelled after the the first portrait, completed in 1545 and retouched by the artist three years later, at the request of the Emperor who was dissatisfied with his wife’s nose. Although the prime version was lost in a fire at the Palacio de El Pardo, Madrid, in 1604, we know the composition through an engraving by Pieter de Jode (1604-c. 1674), which itself follows a lost copy by Rubens.