Joan I (1479-1555), though she wore the crown longer than most Spanish monarchs, played scarcely any part in government, indifferent to everything around her except her husband. This caused her to be forgotten by history and left the door open to legend, which ended by turning Joan I into a character driven to madness by the coldness of her idolised Philip.
The truth was otherwise: though she never ruled, she was queen for nearly half a century, and it should not be forgotten because those who exercised power in her name always took account of her existence. She was still able to collect an extraordinary treasure which she took with her into her confinement at Tordesillas, although her household members took a heavy toll of it in an outright pillage. The queen, her family, power, the arts … an enthralling period and historical figure.

Miguel Ángel Zalama is professor in the Department of the History of Art in the University of Valladolid, and his speciality is the History and Theory of Art of the 15th and 16th centuries. He has published important essays on Joan I and her husband, such as Vida cotidiana y arte en el palacio de la reina Juana I en Tordesillas (2000; 2nd ed., enlarged and revised, 2003) or, together with Paul Vandenbroeck, Felipe I el Hermoso. La belleza y la locura (2006). He currently directs the research group at the University of Valladolid Art, power and society in the Modern Age and the Tordesillas Center for Relations with Latin America.