Charles V and the Empress Isabella
by RUBENS, Peter Paul, Oil on canvas, 114 x 166 cm
This is a copy of a lost painting by Titian. The double portrait was painted by Titian in Augsburg in 1548. The Empress’s portrait is posthumous, it is presumably based on a Netherlandish original. It is uncharacteristically lifeless in the treatment of the head and costume. However, the painting includes an evocative view of a mountainous landscape through the window on the right.