Joanna of Castile
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Joanna of Aragon and Castile (Spanish: Juana de Aragón y de Castilla), best known as Joanna the Mad and as mother of the Charles V, was the second daughter of Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and Isabella. The figure of Queen Joanna attracted authors, composers, and artists of the romanticist movement, due to her characteristics of unrequited love, obsessive jealousy, and undying fidelity. Many later authors have followed this trend of portraying Joanna as a lovesick, and later griefstricken, woman, preferring to focus on her love for her husband than on her mental illness.
Late September of 1505, at the age of 28. Juana's mind completely snapped under the strain of Philip the Handsome's death. She would not be parted from the coffin and, in February 1509, retreated to the isolated fortress of Tordesillas, where she was to remain for 46 years until her death, bearing the title Queen of Castile until the end. Juana had borne six children in her marriage: Charles, Eleanor, Isabel, Mary, Ferdinand and Catherine.
Joanna in literature, art, music, and film
An incomplete list of these works follows:
- Felipe el Hermoso (1845) — Eusebio Asquerino and Gregorio Romero. A play in four acts.
- La Locura de Amor (1855) – Manuel Tamayo y Baus. Play
- Doña Juana la Loca (late 19th Cent.) – Emilio Serrano. Opera.
- Juana la Loca (1877) — Francisco Pradilla. Painting (shown above). Currently in the Prado museum of Madrid, Spain.
- La Loca (1979) — Gian Carlo Menotti. Opera.
- Juana la Loca (2001) — directed by Vicente Aranda and starring Pilar Lopez de Ayala as Joanna, was nominated for 12 Goya Awards, and was released in the US as Mad Love. Based on La Locura de Amor by Manuel Tamayo y Baus.
- El Pergamino de la Seducción (2005) – Gioconda Belli. Novel in Spanish.