Explore the Identity of the sitter of this artwork.
As identifications of Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), three coloured portraits are exhibited in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The personal characteristics are contradictory (see graphic on the right):Ambras Miniature  (anonymous Mantuan artist in the 16th century),
Isabella in Red (copy by Rubens c. 1605 after a lost original by Titian) and
Isabella in Black (Titian 1530s).Due to the resulting confusion, all other museums have withdrawn colour identifications. The differences cannot be explained by idealisation, as Isabella in Black was commissioned as a "face-lift" of the over-60s and would be unflattering (e.g. eye colour, stub nose and eyebrows).Potential explanation would be a misidentification either in Isabella in Black or coincident confusions in Isabella in Red and the Ambras Miniature. The contradictions start in the inventory after Ruben's death in Antwerp with the simultaneous naming of Isabella in Red and Isabella in Black. The inventory is four generations later, in 1640, and thus included namings are not reliable. Portrayals with Balzo were often referred to as the famous patron of the arts after Isabella d'Este's death.The two older copies of the lost Titian original (including an inscription "Isabella Estensis" independent of Rubens) speak for the correct identification in the model of Isabella in Red. The Ambras Miniature also shows homogeneous features with Isabella in Red, bears also an inscription Isabella Estensis and, as a Mantuan copy about a generation later, should still represent a relatively contemporary identification. The confusion would then have to be (as published by some experts) in Isabella in Black.
Kunsthistorisches Museum Rubens Titian Isabella in Black Isabella d'Este Mantua