Portrait of Anne of Austria, Queen of Poland

Anne of Austria was a Habsburg archduchess who in 1592 married Sigismund III, the Vasa king of Poland, sealing one of the alliances that tied Central Europe's ruling houses together. Martin Kober, the court painter who served that Polish court, shows her around 1595 in the stiff, jewelled costume of a reigning queen, every pearl and gold thread recorded with the patience such state portraits demanded. Pictures like this were diplomatic objects as much as likenesses. They travelled between courts to announce a marriage, confirm a face, and display a dynasty's wealth. Kober had painted for emperors and kings across the region, and that experience shows in how completely he turns a young woman into the image of a queen. Anne could not know how little time she had. She died in 1598, only 25 years old, after childbirth, and Sigismund later married her younger sister Constance.