Inês de Castro na Vida de D. Pedro by Mário Domingues

Pedro's father, the Portuguese King Afonso IV, did not approve, and exiled Inês. To go back to the story's foundations, the following is believed to be broadly true, taken from an chronicle written by the Portuguese historian Fernão Lopes around 1440: in around 1340, Prince Pedro I fell in love with his wife's lady-in-waiting, Inês de Castro, whose father was a Spanish nobleman. Rego's work, which she painted to mark the collection's 60th anniversary, should prove a particularly unsettling highlight, with its depiction of Queen Inês – a skeleton. The collection is the largest of women's art anywhere in Europe, with more than 600 artworks, by artists including Maggi Hambling, Lubaina Himid and Judy Chicago, many of which can be seen from today in an exhibition at the London Art Fair, Myth-Making and Self-Fashioning. It really does have the lot, from passionate young love to the coronation of a corpse. The artists it has inspired include the great Paula Rego, whose 2014 portrait Inês De Castro was painted as a commission for the Women's Art Collection at Cambridge University's women-only Murray Edwards College. – The princess who thought she was made of glassīased on a true tale from medieval Portugal, the Pedro and Inês myth is one of the most frequently adapted historical stories of all time – and no wonder. – Is Paula Rego the UK's greatest living artist? But while the story of King Pedro I and his queen Inês De Castro has shades of Romeo and Juliet in its set up, it ends up somewhere altogether more macabre – imagine if Shakespeare's tale swerved into horror movie territory in the final act. It's a tale as old as time – two lovers unjustly torn apart.

Inês de Castro na Vida de D. Pedro by Mário Domingues