Skip to main content
Collections Menu
#116: By Ian Wardropper, Director Transcript

This large-scale portrait evokes the grandeur of Genoese palazzos at a time when Genoa was one of the wealthiest cities in Europe—as it was during Van Dyck’s years-long stay in the city in the 1620s. The sitter’s identity remains unknown, though her sumptuous gold and white clothing, marked across her chest with a black sash and framed by black-edged ruffs, may indicate her status as a widow. This portrait is an example of the kind of stately, elegant portraiture Van Dyck conceived for his aristocratic and noble patrons of Genoese society. He elongates the sitter’s proportions and paints her from slightly below, so that she seems very tall. This was a way of flattering his subjects, making them as lofty as possible.

Genoese Noblewoman

 (Flemish, 1599–1641)
Dateca. 1625–27
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions90 7/8 x 61 5/8 in. (230.8 x 156.5 cm)
Credit LineHenry Clay Frick Bequest
Accession number1914.1.43
Commentary

Van Dyck spent most of his Italian years in Genoa, a thriving Mediterranean port with an important Flemish community. In the wake of Peter Paul Rubens, who had preceded him there in the first decade of the century, he provided the city’s noble families with grand portraits, many of which still adorn their palaces. This portrait of a luxuriously dressed young woman standing against a loosely defined architectural background is a typical example. Although she remains unidentified, the sash across her torso and the black edges of her cuffs seem to indicate she is a widow.

Collection History

Earl of Aberdeen. Duke of Abercorn. Frick, 1914.

Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: American, British, Dutch, Flemish and German. Volume I. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968.

Not On View
Oil painting of a standing woman wearing a white and gold dress
Anthony van Dyck
1622–27
Oil painting of a bearded man wearing black with lace collar and cuffs
Anthony van Dyck
ca. 1620
Oil painting of a sitting woman wearing a black dress with white cuffs and collar
Anthony van Dyck
ca. 1620
Oil painting of a man wearing black leaning on a book
Anthony van Dyck
ca. 1627
Oil painting of a standing man holding a book
Anthony van Dyck
ca. 1638
Black and white engraving of a portrait of a bearded man wearing a large ruff and holding a scr…
Anthony van Dyck
early 17th century
Black and white etching of the head of a man with curly hair, a mustache and goatee, turned to …
Anthony van Dyck
17th century
Oil painting of a sitting woman holding a book on her lap
Carel van der Pluym
mid-1650s
Oil painting of sitting man wearing yellow and arms on armrest
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1658
Oil painting of man riding horse
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
ca. 1655
Copyright © 1998-2024 The Frick Collection. All Rights Reserved.
FacebookYoutubeInstagramTwitterGoogle Arts and Culturemenusearch2xX