The Infanta Catalina Micaela of Spain and Portugal (1567-1597), daughter of Felipe II and Duchess of Savoy through her marriage to Charles Emmanuel I.
Catalina Micaela was very close to her older sister Isabel Clara Eugenia and her father. Her early death at 30 was a terrible blow to both of them and the elderly Spanish King would die a year later in 1598. Her three eldest sons moved to their uncle’s court in Madrid to complete their education in 1903.
Her third son, Emmanuel Filibert of Savoy, entered in the service of her brother King Felipe III in 1610. His uncle made him Grand Admiral and appointed him Viceroy of Sicily.
Her eldest daughter, Margaret of Savoy, Duchess consort of Mantua and Montferrat, was appointed Vicereine of Portugal by her cousin King Felipe IV. She died in her mother’s native Spain 15 years after Portugal’s independence.
Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily, Princess of Asturias. She was one of the daughters of Maria Carolina, and was likely named for her mother’s favourite sister, Marie Antoinette.
(I love that there’s a front AND a back to this miniature. I’ve never seen one done like this before!)
Maria Antonia married Fernando VII in 1802 when he was Prince of Asturias and was the last Princess consort of Asturias for over two centuries. Doña Letizia became Princess consort in 2004 ending María Antonia’s “reign”.
(While the Countess of Barcelona and Queen Sofía have been styled as Princess consort of Asturias those were titles in pretense)
Kings of Castile and Spain→ FELIPE
Las infantas Isabel Clara Eugenia y Catalina Micaela, 1575. Detail.
The Infanta Catalina Micaela, daughter of Felipe II
The Infanta Catalina Micaela playing with her necklace in two portraits of Sánchez Coello c. 1575 and 1582.
The NeverEnding Portrait: Antonio López prompted to finish the portrait of the Royal Family he started 17 years ago.
National Heritage (The State agency that administers the sites owned by the Spanish State and used by the King of Spain and the Spanish Royal Family as residences and for State Ceremonies) commissioned a portrait of the Royal Family 17 years ago. Since then, the three children of the Royal Couple have married, the eldest has divorced and Their Majesties have had 8 grandchildren. The painting was fully paid (€300,000) ten years ago and it was supposed to be unveiled for the 75th birthday of the King in January 2013.
Antonio López, a renowned hyperrealist artist whose painting “Madrid desde Torres Blancas” was auctioned for $2,760,803 in 2008, has made numerous changes to the 3.40-meter-wide by three-meter-high painting that depicts the King, the Queen, the Prince of Asturias, the Infanta Elena and the Infanta Cristina. Over the years the Queen’s suit has changed colors and the distance between the subjects has been modified.
Three years ago the canvas was moved from the Royal Palace to his personal studio in Madrid, but the president of National Heritage has had enough and before announcing that the portrait will be finished before the end of the year, had the painting moved back to a room in the Royal Palace with, in his words, a light that Goya would have envied.
Antonio López himself says that he has solved the problem that didn’t let him finish the portrait before.
Photo: 2011 photo of Antonio López’s studio with the royal portrait. The Queen’s suit is now different.
Miniature of the Infanta Luisa Fernanda (1832-1897), Duchess of Montpensier in the British Royal Collection.
Leopold I, King of the Belgians, reported to Queen Victoria in 1846 that: ‘The Infanta is evidently good looking … Her eyes seem … very lovely and she has fine teeth and hair. She is also very graceful … rather tall already and likely still to grow’ (RA VIC/Y 73/14). She had matured by the time Queen Victoria saw her during her visit to England from 14 June to 2 July 1852: ‘She is very Spanish looking, and there is much charm & beauty about her face, & manner – tho’ she is a good deal altered & looks older than she is. She is very amiable & gentle & ready to do anything & pleased with everything’ (RA VIC/Y 97/20). The Queen was delighted when she wore a mantilla, as in the present enamel: ‘The Montpensiers came to see us … Fernanda looked very handsome in a Spanish Mantilla w h. she put on on purpose for me’ (RA VIC/Y 97/21).
Luisa Fernanda, daughter of Fernando VII of Spain, and of Maria Cristina of the Two-Sicilies, daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies, married in 1846 Antoine, duc de Montpensier, fifth son of Louis-Philippe, King of the French. They had four sons and five daughters.
Signed, dated and inscribed on the counter-enamel in black paint: Infanta Louisa Ferdinanda / Duchess of Montpensier / Simpson after F. Winterhalter / 1849
(Source: royalcollection.org.uk)
Infantas of Spain→ CARLOTA
Mariano Salvador Maella. Carlota Joaquina, Infanta de España, Reina de Portugal, 1785.
Infanta Carlota Joaquina, Queen of Portugal
