Yes, Velazquez portrayed Maria when this princess stayed in Naples, just before going to get married in Austria. Valois+Medicis= fatality, illness, poison, beauty, intrigue, decadence. Remember Margot. however La princesa de la Paz (Isabelle de Valois) was not, it seems, so frivole. When Catherine de M. and her court, during the regence, met her again after years they were astonished. Isabelle was not Isabelle, she wore dark sad clothes and was more spanish than french. What an irony. After spaniards, she was more french than spanish. Philippe loved her passionately. None of the other three spouses had the same account of witt:
the sofistication of France, the latine allure, the age of Philippe at that time. Over this, the fact she was to be the bride of his son! Too much for an autumn man. He loved Ana very much, but in another way: fair, cold, serene, she was his winter. I mean Isabelle was the spring in his autumn, Ana, a sunny winter day.
