European Art and Old Masters

Note

Maria Manuela of Portugal was the eldest daughter of King John III of Portugal and Catherine of Austria. Through her mother, she was also great granddaughter to Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Born in 1527, she married her first cousin Philip II of Spain, son of Charles V, on November 12, 1543 in Salamanca at the age of sixteen. Four days after giving birth to their son Carlos in 1545, Maria Manuela died.

In this stately portrait by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, the Princess of Portugal is shown wearing a three-tiered jewel on her chest, which features two gemstones mounted in gold and linked together in chandelier style with a large pearl drop. It is none other than La Peregrina, at the time the largest, and most famous pearl-shaped natural pearl ever discovered. Gifted to King Philip II of Spain who, in turn, presented it to his first wife Mary I of England (Bloody Mary), the jewel was made a Spanish Crown Jewel and became one of the favorite, and most displayed, jewels among Spanish Queens. Maria Manuel’s own aunt, Margaret of Austria, was immortalized wearing it several times by de la Cruz, such as in his 1606 full-length depiction of the Queen, now in the Royal Collection of King Charles III. The jewel would continue to pass between famous hands, such as Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s eldest brother, who left it in his will to his son, the future Napeleon III who later sold it in England. In recent history, the pearl belonged to Elizabeth Taylor, who received it as a gift from Richard Burton. Bought at auction for $39,000, it sold for over $11,000,000 when it reappeared on the open market in 2011.

Known for his religious compositions and his alluring still lifes, Pantoja de la Cruz was most successful as a portraitist. Working during the reign of Philip II of Spain, he would join the Court in 1580 to be named official painter of the King in 1596. The influence of Alonso Sánchez Coello, under whom Cruz trained, is visible in the hieratic stature of Marie Manuela, a formal pose that had been put in place for royal portraits in the Spanish court, as well as in the treatment of light. Shadows and light contrast each other beautifully, enabling the noble subject to stand against the dark background and shine through her dazzling clothes and jewels.