Queen María Isabel of Braganza as Founder of the Museo del Prado
Artist: Bernardo López Piquer (Spanish, 1799-1874)
Date: 1829
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Description
María Isabel of Braganza was born in Lisbon on 19 May 1797, daughter of John VI of Portugal and Carlota Joaquina of Spain. She became queen of Spain when she married her uncle, Ferdinand VII, on 28 September 1816 and became his second wife. She died during childbirth in Aranjuez on 26 December 1818. It must be noted that this is a posthumous portrait.
The queen has her hair arranged in an imperial style and wears a gold-embroidered red velvet dress with floral motifs. She bears the badge and sash of the Portuguese Order of Christ, the sash of the Spanish Order of Maria Luisa, as well as the oval badge of the feminine Austrian Order of the Starry Cross. On the right, the coat of arms of the two royal families are depicted, with a crown and a Golden Fleece. Moreover, the queen’s initials, IB, are embroidered on the backrest of the chair.
The iconography of the portrait merits special attention: the queen is represented as the founder of the Real Museo de Pintura y Escultura, now known as the Museo del Prado. The building can be perceived through the window from a north-westerly perspective, with the same appearance it had when it was inaugurated in 1819.