I’ve just returned from a trip to Spain, and I’ll visit the Dominican Republic next month, completing my research for the next sequel. The book will retell the years 1498 to 1502, depicting Queen Isabella’s sincere but failed effort to curtail her conquerors’ abuses and enslavement of “Indians,” Anacaona’s then successful struggle—with her brother and alone—to maintain rule of Xaraguá despite the conquest of “Española” elsewhere, and Columbus’s demise.
I now begin posting photos taken during this research, commencing with some portraits and statues of Isabella found in Spain.
The first photo is of the famous portrait of Isabella painted between 1500 and 1504 by Juan de Flandes, one of two artists she commissioned to paint small panels (sometimes referred to as altarpiece paintings) portraying Christ and the Virgin’s important moments on earth set in Castilian settings. This portrait hangs in Madrid’s Royal Collections Gallery. Isabella turned fifty in 1501.
The second photo shows one of the Flandes panels, dated ca. 1502, depicting the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. Isabella appears therein, seated to Christ’s right, and some say the man standing behind her is King Ferdinand. Over two dozen Flandes panels have been preserved, and this panel hangs with many others in the Royal Collections Gallery.
The third and fourth photos are of portraits painted in later centuries, the third hung in Madrid’s Naval Museum and the fourth—showing Isabella in soldier’s attire—in a preserved nobleman’s mansion in Granada.
The fifth and sixth are of statues of Isabella, the fifth—from the nineteenth century—in Madrid’s Royal Palace, and the sixth—from the twentieth century—outside the Church of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo.
The final photo is of one the finely carved choir stalls in Toledo’s great Cathedral, depicting Isabella and Ferdinand’s siege of Granada’s Alhambra, the final battle of the Reconquista (dramatized in Encounters Unforeseen: 1492 Retold). The choir stalls were completed after Isabella’s death. Ferdinand appears riding the horse, and you can see Isabella behind him, commanding and watching.
