Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo

1623

Sir Anthony van Dyck

Associated Names
Sir Anthony van Dyck
Artist, Flemish, 1599 - 1641
A tall woman with pale white skin and a shorter man with brown skin stand on a terrace in this vertical, full-length portrait. At the center, the woman wears a voluminous, long-sleeved, black dress with a row of gold buttons down the bodice. She has a wide, gray ruffled collar at her neck and red ruffled cuffs at her wrists. Her brown hair is pulled back under a cap ornamented with rows of white pearls. She looks at us close-lipped down the bridge of her straight nose. She holds a sprig of orange blossoms in her right hand, on our left. The second person leans into the space from our right as he reaches to hold a crimson-red parasol over and behind the woman’s head. He is cleanshaven with short, dark hair and brown eyes. He wears an amber-yellow garment over a white shirt. Fluted columns rise along the right edge of the composition, and the terrace is enclosed with a low balustrade. Plants surround the woman's feet, and a distant landscape below a blue sky is visible to our left.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Here he had numerous opportunities to paint portraits in which he was marvelously successful and had few equals. He painted Cavaliers and Ladies of our city and all of them so lifelike and invested with a certain air, that . . . . one could sense the spirit of their nobility.

- Raffaele Soprani, Le vite de pittori, scoltori, et architetti genovesi, 1674, on Anthony van Dyck's stay in Genoa

The resplendent Marchesa Cattaneo strides onto the terrace of her Genoese palazzo while her African servant shields her with a bright red parasol. Her steady gaze and proud bearing tell us that she is a confident woman. Anthony van Dyck had a remarkable ability to understand his patrons' aspirations and to express them in his portraits, whether it be the inner strength of a Flemish burgher, the dashing bravura of a military hero, the innocence of a young girl, or the grace of an aristocrat such as Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo. Partly because of the extraordinary surety of his brushwork and the fluidity of his forms, Van Dyck convinces the viewer that his characterizations are just. In truth, however, one knows little or nothing about the personalities or ambitions of most of his sitters, particularly those he portrayed in Genoa. Nevertheless, this portrait's details and composition assure us of the sophistication of this altera donna, or grand lady. The Marchesa's exceptional and disproportionate height emphasizes her stature, literally and figuratively. The red sunshade emphasizes the viewer's position beneath hers and extends her presence, forming a halo around her head against a dramatic sky. The red cuffs break up the severity of the Marchesa's lavish, black costume and draw attention to her hands—especially to the sprig of orange blossoms in her right hand, a traditional symbol of chastity.

Without knowing his actual state of servitude, the black attendant holding the marchesa's parasol is a reminder of the active slave trade from Africa to Genoa. His inclusion in the portrait may derive artistically from Titian, the Italian Renaissance artist Van Dyck admired and who portrayed black servants in several of his canvases.

In the same year he created this portrait, Van Dyck also painted the marchesa's two eldest children, Filippo (1619–1684) and Maddalena Cattaneo (born in 1621), both the National Gallery of Art collection (1942.9.93, 1942.9.94). An Englishman visiting the Palazzo Cattaneo in December 1827 saw the three portraits hung as a group, with the children flanking their mother. P. A. B. Widener's purchase of all three portraits in 1908 allows the museum to replicate that arrangement today.

Van Dyck studied and worked in Italy from late 1621 until 1627. While the port of Genoa was his base, he also made numerous trips of varying duration to other Italian cities, including an eight-month stay in Rome in 1622. In Genoa, he encountered the majestic portraits Peter Paul Rubens had painted there in 1606, including Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria (NGA 1961.9.60), a grand work that inspired this portrayal of Marchesa Cattaneo. The marchesa's parasol and the architectural setting, with its delicately carved Corinthian columns, are directly related to Rubens's use of imposing architecture, terrace setting, red drapery, and overall sense of grandeur in the Spinola Doria portrait.

Throughout his career Van Dyck competed with his immensely famous peer (and teacher) Rubens, whom he outlived by only a year. Van Dyck's style and approach were, nevertheless, distinctive. Note, for example, how Marchesa Cattaneo appears to be in motion, her dress swaying as if she was captured in mid-stride, in contrast to the stilled formality of Rubens's portrait. Van Dyck aspired to an airy style, exhibiting the qualities of grace, ease, nonchalance, and effortlessness that embody the quintessential notion of sprezzatura of Italian courtiers that Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) codified in his influential Book of the Courtier (1528) while describing the ideal Renaissance man.

On View
West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M42
Buy a print

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 242.9 × 138.5 cm (95 5/8 × 54 1/2 in.)
    framed: 271.46 × 166.37 × 12.7 cm (106 7/8 × 65 1/2 × 5 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1942.9.92

Artwork history & notes

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.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1909

  • Exhibition of Portraits by Van Dyck from the Collections of Mr. P.A.B. Widener and Mr. H.C. Frick, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1909, no. 4.

1990

  • Anthony van Dyck, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990-1991, no. 36, color repro.

1992

  • Genova nell'età Barocca, Galleria Nazionale della Liguria (in the Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria), Genoa, 1992, no. 172, repro.

1993

  • The Age of Rubens, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1993-1994, no. 39, repro.

1997

  • Van Dyck a Genova: Grande pittura e collezionismo, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 1997, no. 43, repro.

2004

  • Anton Van Dyck: Riflessi italiani, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2004, no. 7. repro.

2018

  • Van Dyck : pittore di corte, Musei Reali di Torino, Turin, 2018-2019, no. 13, repro.

2022

  • Superbarocco: Arte a Genova da Rubens a Moagnasco, [A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600-1750] [canceled for National Gallery of Art venue], Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2022, no. 17, repro.

Bibliography

1913

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, and Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pictures in the collection of P. A. B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early German, Dutch & Flemish Schools. Philadelphia, 1913: unpaginated, repro.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

1930

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R., ed. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. London, 1930: n.p., pl. 45.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 122, repro.

1935

  • Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 157, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 157, repro.).

1942

  • Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 7.

1944

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 92, color repro.

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 71, repro.

1956

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 40, color repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 87.

1960

  • Broadley Hugh T. Flemish Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 5 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 9, 36-37, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 176, repro.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:272, color repro.

1968

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 13, 117-118, color repro.

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 39, repro.

1970

  • Jaffé, Michael. "Some Recent Acquisitions of Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painting." Studies in the History of Art 1969 (1970): 26, 28, fig. 31.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 120, repro.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 66, pl. 51.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 260, no. 331, color repro.

1985

  • Mündler, Otto. "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler." Ed. Carol Togneri Dowd. Walpole Society 51 (1985): 152, 276.

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 146, repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 323, color repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 50, repro.

1994

  • Barnes, Susan J., and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. "Anthony van Dyck: An Afterword." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 367.

  • Cataldi Gallo, Marzia, "Per una Storia del Costume Genovese nel Primo Quarto del Seicento." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 118-119.

1999

  • Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 139, color repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 224-225, no. 177, color repro.

  • Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, 2004: II.45.

2005

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 40-46, color repro.

2009

  • Gariff, David, Eric Denker, and Dennis P. Weller. The World's Most Influential Painters and the Artists They Inspired. Hauppauge, NY, 2009: 69, color repro.

2011

  • Gustin Gomez, Clémentine. L’avènement du plaisir dans la peinture française, de Le Brun à Watteau. Dijon, 2011: 250-251, color repro.

2016

  • Salomon, Xavier F. "Van Dyck in Sicilia: Il ritratto di Desiderio Segno." In Van Dyck tra Genova e Palermo: Liechtenstein -- The Princely Collections e Palazzo Spinola. Exh. cat. Galleria nazionale di Palazzo Spinola, Genoa, 2016-2017. Genoa, 2016: 12, color fig. 5. (the NGA painting was not in the exhibition.)

  • Alsteens, Stijn, and Adam Eaker. Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture. Exh. cat. The Frick Collection, New York. New Haven and London, 2016: 13 fig. 15, 14.

  • Iacono, Margaret. "The Holland Turners: An epic sale and tale of collaboration." In Colnaghi: Past, Present and Future: An Anthology. Edited by Tim Warner-Johnson and Jeremy Howard. London, 2016: 29, 31 fig. 8.

2020

  • Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 134-135, 136 fig. 79, 187 nt. 21-26.

2021

  • Quodbach, Esmée. "A forgotten episode from America's history of collecting: the rise and fall of art dealer Leo Nardus, 1894-1908." Simiolus 43, no. 4 (2021): 353-375, esp. 362 fig. 12, 362 n. 30.

2024

  • Feigenbaum, Gail, Sandra van Ginhoven, and Edward Sterrett, eds. Money in the Air: Art Dealers and the Making of a Transatlantic Market, 1880-1930. Los Angeles, 2024: 35-36.

Wikidata ID

Q3937510

You may be interested in

You may be interested in