Juana de Austria, hermana de Felipe II, princesa de Portugal

This portrait of Juana de Austria, dated to 1585 and held at the Museo del Prado, depicts one of the most remarkable women of the sixteenth-century Habsburg world. Juana (1535–1573) was the sister of Philip II and mother of King Sebastian of Portugal, and uniquely she was a professed Jesuit — the only woman ever admitted to the Society of Jesus, under a secret vow. After her son's birth she served as regent of Spain during her brother's absence in England, demonstrating considerable political acumen. She founded the Descalzas Reales convent in Madrid, where she eventually retired. Pantoja's portrait, made a decade after her death, is therefore a posthumous image working from earlier representations — a common practice for dynastic imagery. The painter treats her with the same formal gravity he brought to all his royal subjects, the sober dark costume suggesting a figure whose religious vocation sat alongside, never overshadowed by, her dynastic identity.

As a posthumous portrait, the painting relies on existing iconographic types rather than direct observation, resulting in a slightly more formulaic handling of the face compared to Pantoja's life-sitting portraits. The costume and accessories are rendered with his characteristic precision. The dark ground and restrained palette give the work the quality of an icon — a timeless record of identity rather than a moment in time.