him—“Christ falling under the Cross,” in St Paul’s at Antwerp, This picture, of some ten life-size figures, still preserved in the place for which it was originally destined, distinctly proves that from the outset of his career Van Dyck’s power of conception was vastly inferior to his refined taste as a portrait painter. At first sight it seems also that with him, as with most other Flemish painters of the period, every conception, whether sacred or profane, needed to be cast in the mould of Rubens. It would be too much, however, to assert that Van Dyck at this time stood under the guidance of that master; their association, indeed, does not seem to have begun until 1610, and Bellori (1672), who got his information from Sir Kenelm Digby, Van Dyck’s bosom friend, tells us that he was first employed in making drawings (probably also chiaroscuros) for the use of the great master’s engravers, and that among works of the kind one of the first was the “Battle of the Amazons” (1619).
In 1620, we know, Van Dyck was working with Rubens, for on 20th March, in making arrangements with the Antwerp Jesuits for the decoration of their church, the master is allowed to avail himself of his pupil’s assistance, and obtains for him the promise of a picture. This proof of Van Dyck’s personal reputation is fully confirmed (17th July) by a correspondent of the earl of Arundel, who speaks of Van Dyck as a young man of one-and-twenty whose works are scarcely less esteemed than those of his master, and adds that, his relations being people of considerable wealth, he could hardly be expected to leave his home. Van Dyck was, however, thus persuaded, for on 28th November Sir Toby Mathew mentions the artist’s departure to Sir Dudley Carleton, adding that he is in receipt of an annual pension of £100 from the king. There is evidence of Van Dyck’s presence in London till the end of February 1621. He is first mentioned in the order-books of the Exchequer on the 17th of that month as receiving a reward of £100 “for special service by him performed for His Majesty,” and on the 28th, “Antonio van Dyck, gent., His Majesties servant, is allowed to travaile 8 months, he havinge obtayneid his Maties leave in that behalf, as was signified by the E. of Arundell.” What Van Dyck did in London is not known. Among his numerous paintings still preserved in English houses one only is admitted as belonging to the period of this first visit, a full-length portrait of James I. in the royal collection. That he was at the time a portrait painter of the rarest merit may easily be seen from the portrait of “Van der Geest” in the National Gallery (London), and from his own likenesses of himself when still quite young and beardless, in the National Gallery, in the Pinakothek at Munich and in the Wallace Collection. In this last admirable specimen the young painter has represented himself in the character of Paris. Early paintings by Van Dyck are certainly not scarce in British galleries; at Dulwich there is his admirable Samson and Delilah, ascribed to the school of Rubens.
Though the leave of absence was probably obtained by Van Dyck for the purpose of studying the masters in Italy, the eight months had almost elapsed before he started from Antwerp, whither he had gone from London. He left Antwerp on the 3rd of October 1621, and arrived at Genoa on the 21st of November of the same year. Though Van Dyck unquestionably first became acquainted with the masterpieces of the great Venetian colourists in Rubens’s atelier, there can be little doubt that most of the pictures which were formerly ascribed to his earliest period really date from the years of his Italian journey. In fact, studies for some of them can be found in the Chatsworth sketch-book. Among these early works are the “Martyrdom of St Peter” (Brussels), the “Crowning with Thorns” (Berlin), the “Betrayal of Christ” (Madrid and Lord Methuen), “St Martin dividing his Cloak” (Windsor Castle),—a magnificent production, generally ascribed to Rubens, but easily identified through Van Dyck’s admirable sketch at Dorchester House.
It is unnecessary to dwell on a number of tales connected with Van Dyck’s early life, all of which have on closer examination proved to be apocryphal; but one story has been too frequently told to be altogether ignored. At the very outset cf his Italian journey the inflammable youth was captivated by the beauty of a country girl, and for the love of her painted the altar-piece still to be seen in the church at Saventhem, near Brussels, in which he himself is supposed to be represented on a grey horse, given by Rubens to his pupil. It is now known, however, that the picture was commissioned by a gentleman living at Saventhem (to the charms of whose daughter Van Dyck in reality seems not to have been altogether insensible), and a closer study makes it almost certain that it was executed after, not before, his Italian journey. On a reduced scale, and with the omission of two or three figures, the “St Martin” at Saventhem is a reproduction of the picture at Windsor Castle.
With the exception of a short visit to Antwerp at the time of his father’s death in 1622, Van Dyck spent the next five years in Italy. No master from beyond the Alps ever took up a higher position than Van Dyck among the most celebrated representatives of Italian art. Study, as a matter of course ; had been one of his principal objects. No doubt can be entertained as to the great influence exerted by the works of Titian, Paul Veronese and the other great masters of the Venetian school in the development of his genius; still the individuality of the painter remains a striking feature of what may be termed his Italian works, especially portraits. Their peculiar character seems to originate even more in the stateliness of the personages he was fortunate enough to have as sitters than in any desire to follow individual predilection or prevailing fashion. As in later years Van Dyck gives us a striking picture of the higher classes in England, so at this stage he makes us acquainted with Italian beauty and style; and at no other period is his talent more advantageously shown than in some of the glorious portraits he painted at Rome, at Florence, and, above all, at Genoa. At Rome, whither he journeyed after a prolonged stay in Venice, he resided with Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, who had been papal nuncio in Flanders from 1607 to 1617. For this patron were painted several works of very great importance, the most renowned being the prelate’s own portrait, now in the Pitti Palace at Florence. Another work was a “Crucifixion,” representing Christ dying on the cross with uplifted eyes. Most probably the picture spoken of by Bellori ought to be identified with the admirable canvas now in the gallery at Naples, catalogued as “Scuola di Van Dyck,” unsurpassed by any of those at Antwerp, Paris, Vienna, Rome or elsewhere. Besides these he painted religious subjects and portraits, several of which are reckoned among his finest examples, such as the portrait of Duquesnoy, better known as Fiammingo, the famous sculptor, formerly belonging to the king of the Belgians, and those of Sir Robert Shirley and his wife, in Persian attire, now at Petworth.
Bellori tells us of Van Dyck’s prepossessing appearance, of his elegance and distinction, altogether so different from the habits of his compatriots in Rome, who formed a jovial “gang,” as they termed their association. Van Dyck seems to have kept out of their way, and incurred in consequence such annoyance as made his stay in Rome much shorter than it would otherwise have been. In the company of Lady Arundel he travelled to Turin, but he was eager to reach Genoa, where Rubens had worked with great success some twenty years before, and where his Antwerp friends, Luke and Cornelis de Wael, for many years resident in Italy, now were. Van Dyck remained their guest for several months, and their portraits, now in the Pinacoteca Capitolina at Rome (engraved by W. Hollar from the monochrome at Cassel), may be supposed to have been one of his first Genoese productions. Though several of the palaces of the “proud” city no longer retain their treasures, and, among the specimens of Van Dyck’s genius still left, too many have been greatly injured by cleaning and retouching, Genoa can still boast of a good number of his most attractive productions, portraits of the beautiful ladies and haughty cavaliers of the noble houses of Doria, Brignole Sale, Pallavicini, Balbi, Cattaneo,[1] Spinola, Lommelini and Grimaldi. It would
- ↑ Of the Cattaneo portraits, originally eight in number, seven were privately sold out of Italy in 1906, and in the following year one, a half-length “Portrait of a Man,” was acquired for the National Gallery, London, for £13,500. The official acquisition
