ABSTRACT
This study aims to provide some references for the visual and material expressions of her high condition. Her role as regent of Spain-during the long absences of her husband from the Iberian Peninsula-gave her ample occasion to leave an imprint on the artistic realizations of her time, although she did so only to a small extent, in terms of artists' patronage. Of greater relevance were her collecting activities, more centered on costly and rare objects than in pieces of solely aesthetic value. These elements were essential for the self-fashioning of her queenly image. Nonetheless, such image was displaced since very early times by a posthumous one, made for Charles V by Titian. The following pages are an attempt to understand the different strategies adopted by each imperial partner for the construction of Isabel's image, as well as the consequences of those choices, both within the larger historical context and in the particular field of art historical enquiry.2
