One of the strategies used by Isabel to fashion her public image was artistic patronage. In this essay, I examine four aspects of her activity in this area: the creation and use of royal emblems; the construction, furnishing, and decoration of royal palaces; the sponsoring of paintings for a variety of uses; and the commissioning of religious architecture. In examining these aspects of the Queen's patronage, I will address the question of whether she was guided by a medieval or modern vision. For purposes of this discussion, I define medieval patronage as consisting of the acquisition of works of art of a religious or sumptuary character without a full consciousness of or regard for their aesthetic value. In this view, religious works were sponsored specifically as devotional aids in either the public realm (churches) or the private sphere (palace chapels), while civic works served to exhibit the wealth of patrons through the use of rare and expensive materials. Modern patronage, on the other hand, which arose during the European Renaissance, involved connoisseurship, that is, the acquisition of works of art based on the knowledge and appreciation of aesthetic principles derived from Greco-Roman antiquity or based on the reputation of particular artists. Modern patronage also responded to particular propagandistic ends. I will demonstrate that due to the transitional period of her reign, her cultural milieu, and her political agenda, Queen Isabel's artistic patronage combined these patterns.