Anguissola was capable of great things and in her old age was clearly just as sharp. When she was in her early nineties, she was painted by the much younger artist Anthony van Dyck. Captivated by her intellect, in 1624 Van Dyck portrayed her as both astute and austere, qualities still evident in her piercingly resolute eyes, despite her near-blindness. He recalled that she was still very alert, and had advised him to ‘not raise the light too high, so that the shadows would not accentuate the wrinkles of old age’. Although we will never know what she might have produced given the opportunities
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