Chapter 7
“Just a couple of finishing touches and then that's it.”
While I was putting the final brush strokes to the painting of Princess Juana, I could see from her expression how curious she was to see the portrait I'd been working on for weeks. She had wanted me to paint her between the walls of the convent of the Order of Saint Clare, Las Descalzas Reales, which she had founded and then retired to. It was a short distance from the Alcazar, so every day I crossed its threshold, under the triangular tympanum with the princess's crest beneath it, to plunge into the silence and half-light of the halls, which were decorated in precious marble and lined with works of art.
The princess often involved me in the planning and organisation of the entertainments which took place in the convent
