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Open 10:00–5:00

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  • Visit

    • Plan Your Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Food and Drink
    • Tours and Guides
    • Explore the Campus

    Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
    Admission is always free

    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

    Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights

    Through September 5

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    America’s 250th

    Celebrating American art and artists

  • Art & Artists

    • Artworks
    • Artists
    • Stories
    • Fun and Games
    • Educational Resources
    • Research

    Open Call

    Artists Reimagining the Collection

    Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

Utility

  • Support
  • Shop
  • Become a Member

  • Visit

    • Plan Your Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Food and Drink
    • Tours and Guides
    • Explore the Campus

    Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
    Admission is always free

    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

    Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights

    Through September 5

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    America’s 250th

    Celebrating American art and artists

  • Art & Artists

    • Artworks
    • Artists
    • Stories
    • Fun and Games
    • Educational Resources
    • Research

    Open Call

    Artists Reimagining the Collection

    Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

Utility

  • Support
  • Shop
  • Become a Member

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  • Open 10:00–5:00
  • See extended hours

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    3. Marchese Cesare Imperiale Lecari
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    Marchese Cesare Imperiale Lecari

    Italian

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    Artwork

    Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned man wears a tall, black hat, wide white ruffs at the neck and cuffs, and a voluminous black garment in this vertical portrait painting. The dark costume nearly blends into the brown background in some places, so details are difficult to make out. The man sits in a chair so his body and knees are angled to our left. His face is also turned in that direction, but he looks at us from the corners of his brown eyes under dark, heavy brows. He has a thin face with a long, bumped nose. His brown mustache flicks up at the outer ends, and a thin line of hair down his chin creates his beard. His black hat has a high, rounded top and is draped with black fabric and a rosette. The ruffs at his neck and cuffs are pleated into tall, narrow figure eights. His black garment appears to puff widely at the shoulders and fold back over his lap. He wears a ring on the pinky finger of his left hand, which holds a piece of paper. The other hand hangs limp from where his arm rests on the chair, which appears to be upholstered in dark maroon-red fabric and is topped at the back with gold finials. A square window pierces the brown wall behind the man in the top left quadrant of the canvas. A few gold lines glint on the fringed brown curtain pulled up over the window, which opens onto a dark, perhaps nighttime landscape. A coat of arms hangs on the wall behind the chair, to our right of the man’s head. A shield is vertically striped with white to either side of a red stripe with a bird of prey silhouetted in black beneath a gold crown. Gold lettering on the wall below reads, “IO: VINSS: IMPS. ANN: SAL: 1626 AET: SVAE: 44.”
    Sir Anthony van Dyck, Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale, 1626, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.89

    Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale

    Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale

    Sir Anthony van Dyck · 1626 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.89

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