#infantas

In the present double portrait, the infantas are shown standing in an undefined indoor space that contains only a writing desk covered with a green cloth. The other two portraits of these girls are also double. The first is at the monastery of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid and must have been made in 1568, the year their mother died. The other dates from 1571 (London, Buckingham Palace). The two girls appear in a similar arrangement in both, juxtaposed on the same plain and isolated. The portrait maintains the conventions set for adult members of the royal family: they are distant, severe and inexpressive, which is completely logical here, as this is not a double portrait of children, but instead a likeness of the king’s daughters. The link between the two figures is established in a very straightforward manner by having the two girls hold a floral wreath that occupies the approximate center of the composition. This layout is quite similar to the version in London, which was made in 1571, although here the young girl appears more dependent and elusive than her older sister, who looks openly at the viewer. It has been suggested that Sánchez Coello may have based their positions on the composition of Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Marriage, which was then in Philip II’s collection and is now at the National Gallery in London (Text drawn from Ruiz, L.: El Prado en el Ermitage, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2011, pp. 88-89).