The ''Portrait of Isabella of Portugal'' is an oil-on-oak

Early Netherlandish painting Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy Isabella of Portugal (21 February 1397 – 17 December 1471) was Duchess of Burgundy and the third wife of Duke Philip the Good. Their son was Charles the Bold, the last Valois Duke of Burgundy. Born a Portuguese ''infanta'' of the House ...

, the third wife of

Philip the Good Philip III (french: Philippe le Bon; nl, Filips de Goede; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonge ...

. Executed around 1450, the painting had been attributed to

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

,Getty Museum's Portrait of Isabella of Portugal
/ref> but is now believed to be from a member of his workshop. Isabella's expression is slightly mocking. She is dressed in an ornately decorated red and gold

brocade Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian ''broccato'' meaning "embos ...

dress, tightly pulled below at her waist by a green

sash A sash is a large and usually colorful ribbon or band of material worn around the body, either draping from one shoulder to the opposing hip and back up, or else running around the waist. The sash around the waist may be worn in daily attire, bu ...

, although the artist did not match the brocade pattern on the sleeves. The high butterfly

hennin The hennin (french: hennin ; possibly from Flemish nl, henninck meaning cock or rooster) was a headdress in the shape of a cone, steeple, or truncated cone worn in the Late Middle Ages by European women of the nobility. They were most common in ...

and the rings on her fingers denote nobility. The duchess's fingers are elongated, typical of van der Weyden's style, yet this is believed to be a copy of an original van der Weyden portrait which is now lost. On the upper right is the inscription ''PERSICA SIBYLLA IA'', which suggests it may have been one of a series of portraits depicting

sibyls The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local tradi ...

, an identity which contrasts with Isabella's. The inscription and brown faux wood background are later additions."Portrait of Isabella of Portugal"
The J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved December 3, 2014] It is unknown who owned the painting before 1629. It may have belonged to Alexandre d'Arenberg, Duke of Croy and Prince of Chimay, from the end about 1590 to 1629. It was bought by a dealer in 1883 and later sold to Adolph Carl de Rothschild a few years later; when he died in 1900, his son, Baron Maurice de Rothschild inherited the painting, and sold it to

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...

in 1927. It stayed in the Rockefeller family until the

Getty Center The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion center opened to the public on December 16, 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views over ...

bought it in 1978.

See also

References

Further reading