It Looks Uncomfortable - Blog Posts

“The jewellery she displayed, the composition, her seated posture, the barely visible column with rectangular pedestal in the background (representing the pillars of Hercules, the imperial emblem found in portraits of Charles) and proffered rose, were all reminiscent of other portraiture of Habsburg brides. It fixed Mary within a traditional Habsburg iconography. The Tudor emblem, the red rose, suggestive the Virgin Mary mirrored the rose found in Titian's portrait of the Empress Isabella. The flower sacred to Venus was a metaphor of the love tendered to the husband and a symbol of the sitter's beauty. She wears the more informal loose-bodied gown, described by Soranzo as reserved for ordinary wear. The sleeves are not of the French fashion and the buttons up the front support this identification”.

The marriage of Philip of Habsburg and Mary Tudor and anti-Spanish sentiment in England : political economies and culture, 1553-1557 By Alexander Samson (pg. 222)