Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia and Magdalena Ruiz
Museo Nacional del Prado https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/infanta-isabel-clara-eugenia-and-magdalena-ruiz/f5bad972-2c95-4b8d-8f73-6ed6151cc0b8 – Public Domain
Carmela V. Mattza
Louisiana State University
2022 RSA – Dublin
Thanks to her performance in the restoration and defense of the Catholic faith in the Spanish Netherlands and her political role as governor, the figure of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia as a female model of Christianity, became part of an iconography of authority and power that the House of Habsburgs knew how to take advantage of and mobilize through its various courts. The goal of this presentation is to offer a sample of how this iconography took place in Ghent in 1623 through the analysis of the anonymous account that appeared in Louvain in 1624, entitled Espejo Espiritual para que las Damas de Palacio se miren en él. Hecho a honra del Glorioso Padre S. Joseph, guarda mayor de las Damas. This presentation aims to highlight the feminine micro-cosmos of authority and power that took place in Ghent that combined the use of arts and technology to establish its validation.
The National Gallery of Ireland
http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/4782 – Public Domain.