Giovanna d'Aragona

[1] In 1518, the year of her engagement to Ascanio Colonna, Constable of Naples, Cardinal Bibbiena, papal ambassador to the French court, commissioned a portrait of her from the workshop of his friend Raphael as a gift for the King.

The marriage was unhappy, and after giving birth to six children, Giovanna asked Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor for the means to live apart from her husband.

Nonetheless, she donated to the Jesuits land on the Quirinal Hill to build their first seminary; now the site of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale.

[4] Despite all this, she remained close to Vittoria and together with Giovanna's sister Maria and Constanza d'Avalos, they supported the religious writer Juan de Valdés.

In 1556, he held Giovanna under house arrest in Rome and forbade her to arrange marriages for her daughters, perhaps intending them for his nephews.

In 1560, after the death of Paul IV, she returned to Rome and became a prominent figure in Italy's political and religious life.