Emilia II. Antwerpiana of Nassau

The child portrait of Emilia II in portrait format is part of a series of five individual portraits depicting the daughters of William of Orange from his third marriage. Emilia II is sitting in court dress on a velvet floor cushion, a small dog on her lap. As Emilia’s legs are at this moment stretched out to fit on the cushion, she is presumably still a small child. She wears a long dress in red-brown with a white apron, which in turn is decorated with red trimmings. The large collections of the nobility often contained pictures of their own children as well as those of related houses. They were seen as guaranteeing the continued existence of the dynasty. The girls depicted in the portraits bear unusual epithets: Antwerpiana, Belgica and Brabantina. These names refer to the city or province in the Netherlands that had been asked to adopt them, something considered a great honour. This also illustrates the parents’ political aims in the Netherlands.