Portrait of Joan the Mad

The portraits of Joan the Mad and Philip the Handsome were painted on the occasion of their marriage. The paintings shows the capabilities of the artist in the genre of portrait, the only subject permitted beside religious themes in Catholic Spain.

Queen Juana I of Castile (1479-1555) is generally known as “Joan the Mad”. Despite her nickname, Juana’s “madness” has often been disputed; she may have been locked up for political reasons only. Either way, she was a passionate woman, who fell madly in love with her handsome husband and continued to caress him even after his death. At the age of 16, Juana was betrothed to Philip the Handsome of Austria (1478-1506), only son of the Emperor Maximilian I, and they married in 1496 in the Low Countries.