Sun Jul 18, 2021 09:57 AM

July 18, 2021

Sometimes I find incredibly cool stories I know nothing about while looking at the embroidery in portraits. I was not aware of the life of Philipine Welser. She was the daughter of a merchant who married Archduke Ferdinand II.

It was a morgianic marriage in 1557 that was recognized by Ferdinand’s father, the Holy Roman Emperor, in 1559. The emperor, however, required them to keep the marriage secret and she never appeared in public. That continued for almost 20 years until 1576 when her son Andreas was made a cardinal and Pope XIII recognized the marriage.

Ferdinand build Ambras Castle for her. Her portrait in now displayed in the Hapsburg Portrait Gallery there. Her bathing chamber is also preserved (and I now want to research more on that https://www.schlossambras-innsbruck.at/en/explore/at-ambras-castle/bathing-chambers-of-philippine-welser/ )

This design is found in other books, but it felt appropriate to me to use the version from “Nova esposizione de recami et dessegni molto Alla illustre Signora Ippolita Manfred” published by Giacomo Antonio Somascho since it is a book not found by Lotz, so I guess it seems somehow secret to me. In the Vatican Library, Shelfmark: I.149 https://digi.vatlib.it/view/GDS_Stampe.I.149

You can read more about the castle on its website, but they don’t have a good view of the portrait, so I’ve used the version at Wikipedia https://www.schlossambras-innsbruck.at/en/explore/at-ambras-castle/the-history-of-ambras-castle/

Portrait of Philipine Welser https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PhilippineWelser.jpg#mw-jump-to-license