Alfonso Sanchez Coello became court portraitist for the court of Philip II in about 1560, taking over the job from his teacher, Antonis Mor (1519-75) who left Spain because of the omnipotence of the Spanish Inquisition, many saying that his Protestant sympathies would eventually have led to his persecution. Antonis Mor had entered Philip's service in 1550 when he had met the future king in Brussels.

Sanchez Coello introduced new formulas, which later became standard in court portraits throughout the rule of the Habsburg dynasty. He usually showed figures posing formally against sparsely furnished backgrounds and was very precise with both facial characteristics and designs of the royal costumes. It is this precision that reveals the Dutch influence of his work. Sanchez Coello also deviates from the single figure format, unlike Mor, offering other figures or background details that give a glimpse into court life in Spain at the time.

Sanchez Coello's "The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenina with Magdalena Ruiz", is an illustration of the difference in style between his portraits and previous court paintings. It can be dated quite precisely, due to the trends in late sixteenth century fashion and the Infanta's costume, as well as the age of the sitter.

The sections of the painting by Sanchez Coello can be dated to the mid-1580s. It was common for court portraitists to employ assistants to paint either a particular part of the portrait, such as the hands, or to paint duplicates of the portraitist's work.

Recent scholars have found that the portrait of the Infanta was indeed partly painted by assistants. This means that the parts Sanchez Coello painted must have been finished by his death in 1588, but the painting may have been finished later by assistants. Magdalena's inclusion in the portrait offers another insight into court life. Magdalena was a dwarf who had served Isabel Clara for nearly twenty years at the time that this portrait was painted. She and others like her were held in high esteem at the Habsburg court and appeared in paintings throughout the seventeenth century. Magdalena was Philip's daughter's favourite servant and she was also quite close to the King himself, but in this portrait she still looks beseechingly towards her mistress, who comforts Magdalena with a pat on the head. The esteem of the court for Magdalena is clear simply from her inclusion in the portrait. "The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia with Magdalena Ruiz"