Beloved sisters - double portrait of the infantas Isabel Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela of Spain, 1570

 

Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia (12 August 1566 - 1 December 1633). She married Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and lived to the age of sixty-seven.

Infanta Catalina Micaela (10 October 1567 - 6 November 1597). She married Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and died at the age of thirty.

Adapted - and significantly altered - from the essay on the Royal Collection website:

This nearly life-size double-portrait of the daughters of Phillip II of Spain from his third marriage, was formerly attributed to Anthonis Mor and subsequently to Sofonisba Anguissola. However, the overall composition and the modelling of the features and treatment of the hands points toward the work of Alonso Sánchez Coello. It is strikingly similar to Coello's double-portrait of the infantas in the Museo del Prado, and is very close in quality to other known works by the artist. However it lacks the fluency of his brushwork, suggesting it was at least in part painted by one of the artists working in his studio.

Typical of sixteenth-century Spanish court portraiture, the painting depicts the little girls in formal poses and with a precise attention to detail in the painting of their richly ornamented dresses and jewelry. Four-year-old Isabel Clara Eugenia is shown on the left, a green parrot perching on her hand, while her three-year-old sister, Catalina Micaela, holds gloves in her left hand and rests her right on the forepaw of a spaniel who sits on the table. Both girls are wearing dark green dresses which are richly embroidered with flowers and gold lace and trimmed with pearls. During this period it was common for royal children to be depicted almost as miniature adults and in this portrait, the 'al forza', a tuck of fabric around the hem of a skirt, which was a distinctive feature of dress for adult woman in Spain, is clearly shown.

Coello's later portrait of the infantas in the collection of the Museo del Prado, circa 1575.

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Alonso Sánchez Coello (circa 1531, Benifairó de les Valls - 8 August 1588, Madrid), Spanish Renaissance painter. He was a student of Anthonis Mor and his successor at the Spanish court. He is mainly known for his portraits executed in a style which combines the objectivity of the Flemish tradition with the sensuality of Venetian painting. He was court painter to Philip II.

Hollywood walks out - studio publicity in motion

 

Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins, director Ernst Lubitsch, Fredric March - Design for Living, 1933.

This was a standard studio publicity department "thing" during the golden age of Hollywood, from the Thirties through, at least, the Fifties: line up a film's cast and have them walk. In costume. Apparently between takes. Most often it was the film's main cast. Frequently it was only its two or three stars. Sometimes its director or other prominent participant was included. Usually the photograph was taken outside on the studio lot, in the bright California sunshine. But sometimes it was taken indoors, typically against a blank white backdrop, in which case the walking was more or less mimed. The participants almost always look quite jolly, the moment, all quite spontaneous; the former may well have been true, but certainly not the latter.

Claud Rains, Paul Henreid, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca, 1942.

Florence Nash, Phyllis Povah, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, Mary Boland, Joan Fontaine - The Women, 1939.

The same, with director George Cukor.

Jean Hersholt, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor - His Brother's Wife, 1936.

Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, director/writer Preston Sturges, Claudette Colbert, Rudy Vallée - The Palm Beach Story, 1942.

 Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable - China Seas, 1935. (Two images.)

Gary Merrill, Bette Davis, George Sanders, Anne Baxter, Hugh Marlowe, Celeste Holm - All About Eve, 1950. (Three images.)

Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford - Dancing Lady, 1933.

Jack Holt, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Ted Healy - San Francisco, 1936.

James Stewart, Jean Arthur - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939. (Two images.)

Fanny Brice, Allan Jones, Billie Burke, Reginald Owen, Judy Garland, Reginald Gardiner, Lynne Carver - Everybody Sing, 1938.

Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, Jean Hagen - Adam's Rib, 1949.

 June Lang, Eddie Cantor, Gypsy Rose Lee (as Louise Hovick), Roland Young, John Carradine - Ali Baba Goes to Town, 1937.

Carole Lombard, Shirley Temple, Gary Cooper - Now and Forever, 1934.

Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn - Bringing up Baby, 1938.

Ronald Reagan, Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, Steve Cochran - Storm Warning, 1951.

Freddie Bartholomew, Mickey Rooney, Cora Sue Collins, Jackie Cooper - photograph unrelated to a film project, 1936.

Fred MacMurray, Claudette Colbert, Robert Young - The Bride Comes Home, 1935.

William Powell, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy - Libeled Lady, 1936. 

The same, with director Jack Conway.

Peter Lawford, Jane Powell, Fred Astaire, Sarah Churchill - Royal Wedding, 1951.

Ray McDonald, Anne Rooney, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Virginia Weidler, Richard Quine - Babes on Broadway, 1941.

Lilian Bond, Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell - China Seas, 1935.

Charles Boyer, Isabel Jeans, unidentified man, Heather Thatcher, Basil Rathbone - Tovarich, 1937. (It fairly kills me that I can't identify this one guy!)

Gypsy Rose Lee (as Louise Hovick), Don Ameche, Alice Faye - You Can't Have Everything, 1937.

The same, with Charles Winninger.

Mickey Rooney, Betty Garrett, Janet Leigh, Tom Drake - Words and Music, 1948.

Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, director Clarence Brown - Wife vs. Secretary, 1936.

Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Joan Bennett - There's Always Tomorrow, 1956.

Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ava Gardner, Joe E. Brown, Agnes Moorhead, Robert Sterling - Show Boat, 1951.

The same, Grayson and Gardner with cinematographer Charles Rosher.

David Bruce, Deanna Durbin, Dan Duryea - Lady on a Train, 1945.

Ruth Roman, Glenn Ford, Nina Foch, Denise Darcel - Young Man with Ideas, 1952.

Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey, Robert Young - Rich Man, Poor Girl, 1938.

Sidney Greenstreet, Deborah Kerr, Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Adolphe Menjou - The Hucksters, 1947.

Fay Holden, Herbert Marshall, Lee and Lynn Wilde, Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Bonita Granville, Sara Haden - Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble, 1944.

Costume designer Adrian, Rosalind Russell - The Women, 1939.

Jack Oakie, director Wesley Ruggles, Dorothy Dell - Shoot the Works, 1934.

Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Fred Astaire, Luella Gear - Carefree, 1938.

The same, Rogers and Astaire with composer Irving Berlin.

Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney - Boy's Town, 1938.

Irene Dunne, Cary Grant - The Awful Truth, 1937.

Dennis Morgan, Merle Oberon, Rita Hayworth, Ralph Bellamy - Affectionately Yours, 1941.

 Sheila Browning, Virginia Grey, Diane Cook, Mary Jane Halsey, William Powell, Bonnie Bannon, Georgia Spence, Monica Bannister, Margaret Lyman
- The Great Ziegfeld, 1936.

George Raft, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart - They Drive by Night. 1940.

Joan Crawford, Clark Gable - Love on the Run, 1936. (Five images.)