Charles V and Empress Isabella of Portugal

When Rubens came to Madrid in 1628 on diplomatic business for the Spanish Netherlands, he found the king's palaces full of Titians, and he spent much of his stay copying them. This double portrait is one of those copies. Titian had painted the original in 1548 for Charles the Fifth, nine years after the death of his wife, Isabella of Portugal. The emperor kept it close. Palace inventories record it in the Alcázar of Madrid, at the palace of El Pardo, and in his own cell at the monastery of Yuste, where he withdrew after giving up his crowns. The original burned in the Alcázar fire of 1734, so Rubens's canvas is now one of the main records of how it looked. He followed the clothes closely, down to the empress's puffed and slashed sleeves, but the landscape opening behind the red curtain is his own addition. The Alba family bought the picture in London in 1935.