Portrait of Lady-in-Waiting to the Infanta Isabella

For a long time this girl in a stiff Spanish ruff was known simply as a lady-in-waiting to the Infanta Isabella, the Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Netherlands, whom Rubens served as both painter and diplomat. The title comes from an old inscription on one of his drawings. But many scholars now read the face differently. They think Rubens painted it around 1625 in memory of his own elder daughter, Clara Serena, who had died in 1623 at the age of 12. There is no document to prove it, only the tenderness of the handling. Whoever she is, he set the pale oval of her face against that white ruff so it stands out like a single flower, the eyes soft and slightly wet, looking just past us.