Perpetuating the image of the queen: portraits of Isabella I of Castile

Isabella I of Castile was one of the first queens of the Iberian Peninsula to recognise the importance of the portrait. Besides the official effigies of the monarchs, fundamental for exteriorising the project for the political unity of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon together with her husband Ferdinand the Catholic, a more private iconography of the queen also emerges, with individualised portraits of greater veracity that would be important for matrimonial connections with the other European courts, and particularly for showing the queen’s true appearance. Isabella remained in the historical memory of subsequent generations, and especially in courtly circles, which were avid for images of the virtuous queen. Her likeness thus continued to appear in Spanish painting until well into the nineteenth century. It is therefore important to survey the repertory of portraits produced during her lifetime to explain the formation of the later iconography of the queen, which included not only exact copies of previous portraits but also highly deliberate reinterpretations from a symbolic point of view. These are analysed up to the Isabelline period, when the image of Isabella the Catholic acquired great importance owing to efforts to present her as a paragon for the young Isabella II.