Atelier de Juan Pantoja de la Cruz Portrait of Margaret...

Studio of Juan Pantoja de la Cruz
Valladolid 1553 - 1608 Madrid
Portrait of Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain, Portugal and of the Two Sicilies

Oil on canvas
100,2 x 72,2 cm ; 39½ by 28⅜ in.

Catalogue Note:
Executed in the workshop of Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, this version of the portrait of Margaret of Austria (1584–1611), wife of Philip III of Spain, is a modified adaptation of the celebrated original painted by the master himself, now preserved in the Museo del Prado (inv. P002563).

Here presented as a three-quarter-length portrait rather than full-length, the queen, unlike in the Prado version, makes a slight gesture with her right hand, which she raises to her bodice, her fingers curling around her pearl necklace. Her richly embroidered gown also differs from that of the original portrait.

Despite these changes, she wears here, as in the prototype, the famous pearl known as “La Peregrina,” discovered in Panama around 1500 and acquired by Philip II of Spain in 1579, as well as “El Estanque,” the large diamond set in the same brooch, which, like the pearl, was also bequeathed to Anne of Austria.

Provenance:
Collection Emile Dunand;

By descent to his daughter;

Where acquired;

Anonymous sale ('Collection privée française'), Christie's, Paris, 23 June 2009, lot 12 (as Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and Studio).