Everyone loves a good inbreeding story and Juana of Austria is both the descendant of and participant in one. 

Daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (where she got that Habsburg Jaw) and his first cousin, Isabella of Portugal, Juana had little chance at a normal, healthy life due to both her inbred heritage and the fact that she was a woman in the 16th century. So at the age of seventeen, Juana was forced to marry her first cousin, the fifteen-year-old crown prince of Portugal, John Manuel of Portugal. It would be bad enough to marry a fifteen-year-old boy let alone your fifteen-year-old boy cousin. But Juana was a woman, meaning that her worth was in her womb, not in her brain. Their marriage didn’t last long though because her hubby/cuz died from either tuberculosis or diabetes two years after their wedding, and eighteen days before the birth of his son the future King Sebastian I of Portugal.

A few months later Juana was summoned back to Spain by her father and was forced to leave her newborn baby in the care of her mother-in-law, Queen Catherine of Austria. She would never see her son again but she did have paintings done of him so she could periodically see what he looked like and whether or not he had inherited that famous jaw. She wasn’t forced to remarry and acted as regent to both her father and brother while they flitted around Europe marrying cousins and contributing to the downfall of European royalty due to epilepsy and hemophilia. All in all her life was probably as good as a woman in the 1500s’ could be…

Years later, Isabella Stewart Gardner was jonesing for this painting that she thought was by Titian. The art historian, Bernard Berenson warned her that it might not be by the Renaissance painter but decided that they should just buy it and figure out the deets later. Gardner proudly displayed it across the gallery from Titian’s The Rape of Europa. As you well know, this painting is by Sofonisba Anguissola and not by Titian. It was, however, painted at the exact same time that Europa got to the Spanish court. I guess if paintings could be soul mates, then The Rape of Europa and Portrait of Juana of Austria would be!