catalinadetrastamara: Portrait of Elisabeth of Valois by Anthonis Mor Elisabeth of Valois (1546-1568

catalinadetrastamara:

Portrait of Elisabeth of Valois by Anthonis Mor

Elisabeth of Valois (1546-1568), daughter of Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici, married Philip II of Spain by proxy in Paris on 27 June 1559. The marriage was subsequently confirmed in Guadalajara on 31 January 1560. Anthonis Mor’s portrait should be dated to the early months of 1560, as the painter (known in Spain as Antonio Moro) was back in the Low Countries later that same year. Although the rich robes Elisabeth of Valois is wearing might seem to suggest that this is what she wore at her betrothal, contemporary sources state that the Queen dressed in the French mode. For the occasion, however, she did wear the jewelled crucifix portrayed here. In any case, the dress was certainly one of the most magnificent items in the Queen’s wardrobe, and could well be the “rich and tawny dress of crimson velvet, and embroidery and flaps for the cut part, with high bodice and tabbed sleeve, lined with reddish yellow taffeta; and the sleeves and hem in scraped white satin, and the trimming done with cut-velvet flaps” which, in the inventory of Elisabeth’s possessions made after her death, was valued at the princely sum of 50,000 maravedis. (x)