Ambrogio Spinola (1569–1630)

This 1608 portrait of Ambrogio Spinola (1569–1630), Genoese general serving the Spanish Habsburg army, at Lamport Hall is one of van Mierevelt's most historically significant sitters. Spinola was the most successful Spanish commander in the Low Countries, capturing Ostend in 1604 after a famous three-year siege and eventually taking Breda in 1625 — the subject of Velázquez's celebrated painting. Van Mierevelt painted him in 1608 while Spinola was in the Netherlands conducting the Spanish military campaign, a moment of relative Spanish military confidence before the twelve-year Truce of Antwerp (1609). The fact that a Spanish Habsburg general sat for the principal Dutch Republic portraitist reflects the complex, fluid relationships of the era even amid war. Lamport Hall's collection connects to the aristocratic networks that brought such portraits to England.

Armour portraits require van Mierevelt to master the reflective, metallic surfaces of polished steel alongside the organic textures of flesh and lace. Spinola's military armour would be rendered with cool silver-grey tones and carefully placed highlight reflections, using a quite different technique from the warm flesh modelling. The face receives van Mierevelt's standard warm-toned careful approach, but the armour's cold metallic surfaces are built through cool blue-grey underpainting with sharp impasto highlights.