The Defenders of the Eucharist

In 1625 the ruler of the Spanish Netherlands was a widow in a nun's habit. Isabel Clara Eugenia, daughter of Philip II, had governed from Brussels with her husband until his death in 1621, and afterwards she dressed as a Poor Clare for the rest of her life. That year she ordered a set of 20 tapestries on the Eucharist for the Descalzas Reales, a royal convent in Madrid, and Rubens designed them. This small panel is one of six of his designs kept together in Madrid: the Latin fathers of the church on one side, and holding the centre, Clare of Assisi, who in her legend faced down soldiers by lifting up the host. Clare has been given the infanta's own features. The tapestries were woven in Brussels and still belong to the convent she sent them to.