Maddalena Cattaneo
Sir Anthony van Dyck·1623
Historical Context
Maddalena Cattaneo (1623), at the National Gallery of Art, is the companion portrait to Filippo Cattaneo, depicting the young daughter of the Genoese patrician family. Van Dyck presents the girl in an elaborately embroidered dress, her small figure invested with a composure that belies her youth. The pendant format — a brother and sister portrayed as matching pairs — was standard in aristocratic portraiture, visually asserting the family's wealth and fecundity. Van Dyck renders the rich textiles with his characteristic virtuosity while keeping the focus on the child's face, creating a portrait that balances formal requirements with genuine warmth. The Cattaneo portraits are among the most charming works from Van Dyck's productive Genoese years.
Technical Analysis
The small portrait captures the child's delicate features with warm, soft flesh painting. The costume, though rich, is handled with restraint appropriate to a child's portrait, and the background is kept simple to focus attention on the young face.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the elaborately embroidered dress investing the small figure with composure belying her youth.
- ◆Look at the delicate features rendered with warm, soft flesh painting while the background remains simple to focus attention on the young face.
- ◆Observe the pendant format with brother Filippo — visually asserting the Cattaneo family's wealth and fecundity as one of Van Dyck's most charming Genoese works.
Provenance
Giacomo Cattaneo [born 1593], Genoa, father 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] This part of the provenance is based on Piero Boccardo's observations on Giacomo Cattaneo's patronage of Van Dyck, and on a document from the Cattaneo family archives that he published, all in Susan Barnes, Piero Boccardo, et al., _Van Dyck a Genova. Grande pittura e collezionism_, 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] The painting was probably seen by Carlo Giuseppe Ratti in the palazzo of Giambattista Cattaneo (_Instruzione di quanto può vedersi di più bello in Genova in pittura, scultura, ed architettura ecc... nuovamente ampliata e accresciuta_, Genoa, 1780: 106), and it was seen by Otto Mündler in May 1857 at Casa Casaretto (his diary is now in the National Gallery, London; see Otto Mündler, _Travel diaries 1855-1858_, edited by Carol Togneri Dowd, reproduced in _Walpole Society_ 31 [1985]: 152 [book 1, f. 85]). Sir Charles Eastlake, director of the National Gallery of London, made notes about the Cattaneo paintings as well when he visited Genoa on 30 August 1857 (his notes are at the National Gallery in London). [3] Information on Monti and the relationship between Trotti, Colnaghi, and Knoedler is from records available at the Getty Provenance Index.
