Reconstructing Sofonisba Anguissola's (1532?–1625) life and oeuvre entails consideration of both historical context and the artist's position as a sixteenth-century noblewoman. As is well known, Sofonisba left her natal city of Cremona in 1559 to serve as a lady-in-waiting and a painter at the court of Philip II of Spain (1527–1598). There she was appointed as a dama (lady-in-waiting) to Philip's third wife, Queen Isabel of Valois (1545–1568). Sofonisba's position at the Spanish court represented the acceptance of a female member of the Anguissola family into a royal environment, certainly one of the most coveted positions available to a young woman at the time. The appointment offered, as well, an opportunity for the Anguissola family to gain privileges, mercedes (favours) from the king, as well as to establish relationships that would raise the family's nobility. Numerous publications over the last three decades have advanced study of Sofonisba Anguissola from a position of relative anonymity, with attention focusing largely on stylistic analysis and attribution of works to the artist. Even so, areas of uncertainty regarding Sofonisba's career remain. This is due, in part, to the absence of documented payments for the paintings she produced at the court; further, the artist stopped signing paintings while in Spain. It is still not possible, therefore, to clearly identify the scope of Sofonisba’s pictorial production at the court in the years between 1560 and 1573. Indeed, many of the paintings she produced there were long attributed to the official court painter and retratador (portraitist), Alonso Sanchéz Coello.