Catherine Michelle of Austria, Duchess of Savoy

The Infanta of Spain, Catherine Michelle, who married Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy in 1585, is shown wearing a tall coiffure adorned with pearls, and a dress that is unusually bright, considering that she normally had herself portrayed in black or dark clothes embellished, as in this case, with pearls and jewels.
The background at the left of the painting is very interesting, for it shows the old gallery that used to join Palazzo Madama (in the distance, shown from the Po side) and the Palazzo Ducale (now Palazzo Reale).
The vase in the foreground is a precise quotation from an engraving by Johan Sadeler I (a Flemish en-graver with mannerist tastes); and it allows us to date the painting to the last years of the duchess’s life. She died giving birth at the age of thirty in 1597.