Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo
Sir Anthony van Dyck·1623
Historical Context
Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo (1623) is one of Van Dyck's most celebrated portraits and among the finest aristocratic portraits ever painted. The Marchesa is shown in full length, preceded by a servant holding a parasol, on the terrace of her Genoese palace. The composition's inventive combination of grandeur and naturalism — the casually held parasol, the windblown veil — transformed aristocratic portraiture by making it both magnificent and alive.
Technical Analysis
The brilliant red parasol provides a stunning color accent against the cool architecture and overcast sky. Van Dyck's handling of the black costume achieves extraordinary tonal richness, while the Marchesa's face is painted with the refined luminosity that distinguishes his finest works.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the deep black costume — each fold and texture is rendered with painstaking precision, the brushwork almost invisible in its refinement.
Provenance
Giacomo Cattaneo [born 1593], Genoa, husband of the sitter; by inheritance to his sons, Filippo Cattaneo [1619-1684] and Gio. Giacomo Cattaneo [1628-1712], Genoa; by inheritance 1712 to their great-nephew, Nicolò Cattaneo [1676-1746], Genoa;[1] by inheritance to Giambatista Cattaneo, Genoa, by 1780; Nicola Cattaneo, Genoa, by 1827; Cattaneo della Volta Collection, until 1906;[2] sold to Antonio Monti, Ferrara, buying with or more likely for (Trotti et Cie., Paris); on joint account December 1906 with (P. & D. Colnaghi, London); on three-way joint account February 1907 with (M. Knoedler and Co., New York);[3] sold 1908 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] Information about the early provenance of the painting is contained in a document from the Cattaneo family archives published by Piero Boccardo, "Ritratti di collezionisti e committenti," in Susan Barnes, Piero Boccardo, et al., _Van Dyck a Genova. Grande pittura e collezionismo_, exh. cat., Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 1997: 53-56. The portraits of Elena Cattaneo Grimaldi and her children (NGA 1942.9.92-94) have stayed together as a group through the centuries, except for a brief period between 1708 and 1712. During those years the portrait of the mother (NGA 1942.9.92) stayed with Gio. Giacomo Cattaneo, while the paintings of Filippo and Maddalena (NGA 1942.9.93-94) had already come to the residence of Niccolò Cattaneo near Portovenere. [2] See also _The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalogue. Volume I: Paintings, American, British, Dutch, Flemish and German_, New York, 1968, 179-180: "Ratti, in 1780 [Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, _Instruzione di quanto può vedersi di più bello in Genova in pittura, scultura, ed architettura ecc... nuovamente ampliata e accresciuta_, Genoa, 1780], recorded several [Cattaneo portraits] in the palace of Giambattista Cattaneo, near the Church of San Torpete, and in 1846 Alizeri also referred to them [Federigo Alizeri, _Guida Artistica per la Città di Genova_, 2 vols., Genoa, 1846-1847]. In May 1857, Otto Mündler wrote in his diary [manuscript now in the National Gallery, London; see Otto Mündler, "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler 1855-1858," ed. Carol Togneri Dowd, _Walpole Society_ 31 (1985): 152 (book 1, f. 85), 276] that there were in the Casa Casaretto eight Van Dycks ('unquestionably original, but all of them formerly enlarged'). Among these he cited (no. 6): 'A young Lady, standing, l. side outwards. A negro holds a red umbrella over her head. Her r. hand holds an orange-flower. White ruff and red cuffs, on a black dress. The negro dressed in yellow. Background a terrasse, a landscape; fine sky. Size of life. Splendid.' Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, director of the National Gallery of London, also visited Genoa in 1857. In his notes (preserved in the library of the National Gallery, London) he writes: '30 Aug. 1857. Genoa. The Cattaneo "Vandyck" most of them (there are eight in number) are very sketchy & being on a dark ground have suffered ... The whole length lady with a black servant holding a red umbrella over her is ... [ruined?].'" [3] Information on Monti and the relationship between Trotti, Colnaghi, and Knoedler is from records available in the Getty Provenance Index.
