Marchesa Balbi
Sir Anthony van Dyck·c. 1623
Historical Context
Marchesa Balbi (c. 1623), at the National Gallery of Art, is one of Van Dyck's celebrated Genoese portraits, depicting a member of one of the city's leading patrician families. The marchesa is presented with imposing dignity, her black costume and elaborate lace collar asserting her social rank against a grand architectural backdrop. Van Dyck's Genoese portraits transformed the conventions of Italian aristocratic portraiture, introducing a new combination of physical grandeur and psychological subtlety that made him the most sought-after painter in the city. The Balbi family, along with other Genoese patrician houses, provided Van Dyck with the patronage that allowed him to develop the full-length portrait format he would perfect at the English court.
Technical Analysis
The large canvas shows Van Dyck's Genoese grand manner at its most impressive. The black costume against a dark background creates dramatic tonal unity, with the face and hands emerging as luminous focal points of warm, refined flesh painting.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the intricate lace collar — each fold and texture is rendered with painstaking precision, the brushwork almost invisible in its refinement.
Provenance
Balbi family Genoa, until 1819. Possibly Auguste de Sivry, Venice.[1] Baron John Benjamin Heath [1790-1879, British consul at Genoa]; sold 1836, in London, to Robert Staynor Holford [1802-1892], Dorchester House, London; by inheritance to his son, Sir George Lindsay Holford, K.C.V.O. [1860-1926], Dorchester House; his estate; purchased February 1926 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] purchased February 1926 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] Giorgio Balbi (letter of 14 August 1958, in NGA curatorial files) wrote that he knew the painting was in the Palazzo Balbi until 1819. It was not certain when the painting was sold by the family, or by which member of the family. Michael Jaffé, in Bernhart Schwenk and Bettina-Martine Wolder, eds., _Kunst in der Republik Genua 1528-1815_, exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 1992: 65-66, discusses some of the possibilities. Additional provenance information is suggested by Pietro Boccardo ("Ritratti di Genovesi di Rubens e di van Dyck: contesto e identificazioni," in Susan J. Barnes and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., eds., _Van Dyck 350_, Hanover and London, 1994: 88, 97 note 41), who notes that Giorgio Balbi, in his article "Fatti e misfatti di un palazzo Balbi," _Genova_ (1958): 29 note 7, indicates that he owned a lithograph by P. Vogt, published by Barozzi in Venice, that depicts _Marchesa Balbi_. This lithograph identifies the owner of the painting as Auguste de Sivry in Venice ("M.me la marquise Balbi de Genes. L'original appartient à Monsieur Auguste de Sivry à Venise"). Although the date of the lithograph is not known, this information seems to indicate that the painting was sold by the Balbi family to Auguste de Sivry before it entered the collection of Baron Heath. [2] Provenance prior to Mellon is according to _Anthony van Dyck_, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990: 144. [3] Mellon purchase date and date deeded to trust is according to Mellon records in NGA curatorial files and David Finley's notebook donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives.
