Van Dyck's Genoese Nobles: Two Portraits in Context

The aristocratic portraits painted by Van Dyck in the Republic of Genoa during the 1620s have become famous as definitively charismatic images of a ruling elite, the Genoese nobility being constitutionally defined as the governing class of the state. From the earliest written accounts of them a generic, collective appeal has been ascribed to these prepotently glamorous images, glossing over the specific meanings which any individual image might express. This study of two principal portraits...