Maddalena Cattaneo

1623

Sir Anthony van Dyck

Artist, Flemish, 1599 - 1641

A young girl with light skin, round, rosy cheeks, and blond hair holds an apple and wears a full, ankle-length, silvery white dress with puffy sleeves in this vertical portrait painting. She stands with her body slightly angled to our left, and she turns her face to look at us with large, dark blue eyes under faint brows. Her wavy blond hair falls to her chin and glimmers where it catches the light. Her nose and cheeks are flushed, and her rose-red lips are closed. She holds a red and green apple with both hands at her waist. Her dress has a high neck and voluminous, puffy sleeves with lace at the cuffs. Her dress is covered by a smock down the front and an apron over the full skirt. The apron is edged with lace and seems to be smooth, which contrasts with the textured appearance of the skirt and sleeves. The rounded toes of her cream-white shoes poke out under the ankle-length hem of her dress. She stands on a platform or on a step, and a crimson-red cushion with gold trim and tassels rests on the floor behind her. To our left, a thick, square column rises from a tall base and reaches off the top edge of the composition. The background to our right is dark with shadow.

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In response to dynastic concerns of Genoese patricians, Anthony van Dyck began to portray individual children while in Italy. Painted in 1623, the likenesses of Filippo and Maddalena Cattaneo are among the most endearing of Van Dyck's portraits, in the way they capture the radiant innocence of childhood. As the youngsters look out with wide open eyes and gentle smiles, they captivate the viewer with the disarming directness of their expressions. Nevertheless, Filippo and Maddalena, depicted as the grown-ups they will become, are remarkably serious, as though already conscious of their future adult responsibilities.

Filippo, his hair parted in the middle, stands with one arm akimbo as would any young nobleman posing for a formal portrait. His elegant wardrobe consists of a jerkin, breeches, a cape embroidered with gold threads, a flat lace collar, and long yellow stockings. The inscription on the wall at the left reveals that Filippo is four years, seven months old. Despite his charming innocence, the boy—his father's heir—assumes a posture of authority and engages us with his frank gaze. His left arm is cocked on his hip, while the other grasps the iron chain that restrains a mastiff puppy, an attribute of constancy and faithfulness. The puppy, not interested in posing, looks wistfully to his left, presumably to the portrait of Filippo's sister Maddalena, which must have hung on that side.

Maddalena, whose golden tresses are similarly parted in the middle, wears a white woolen dress with large puffy sleeves. The front part of the dress is covered by a fine linen apron trimmed with lace. Standing more frontally than her brother, Maddalena clasps an apple, a gesture symbolic of both chastity and fertility. Although Van Dyck situated both children on a wide marble step before a dimly lit architectural form, he softened the starkness of Maddalena's setting by placing her before a large red pillow decorated with gold tassels.

A document of 1692 confirms that the two children were the offspring of Marchese (marquess) Giacomo Cattaneo and his wife, Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo, whose full length portrait Van Dyck also executed in 1623 (National Gallery of Art, 1942.9.92). It is probable that Van Dyck first portrayed the Marchesa, after which his satisfied sitter and patron asked him to paint her children as well. In the Cattaneo palace in Genoa, the children's pictures flanked the portrait of their mother.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 42

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 122.5 x 84.1 cm (48 1/4 x 33 1/8 in.)
    framed: 163.2 x 125.1 cm (64 1/4 x 49 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.94

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Giacomo Cattaneo [born 1593], Genoa, father 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] This part of the provenance is based on Piero Boccardo's observations on Giacomo Cattaneo's patronage of Van Dyck, and on a document from the Cattaneo family archives that he published, all in Susan Barnes, Piero Boccardo, et al., Van Dyck a Genova. Grande pittura e collezionism, 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] The painting was probably seen by Carlo Giuseppe Ratti in the palazzo of Giambattista Cattaneo (Instruzione di quanto può vedersi di più bello in Genova in pittura, scultura, ed architettura ecc... nuovamente ampliata e accresciuta, Genoa, 1780: 106), and it was seen by Otto Mündler in May 1857 at Casa Casaretto (his diary is now in the National Gallery, London; see Otto Mündler, Travel diaries 1855-1858, edited by Carol Togneri Dowd, reproduced in Walpole Society 31 [1985]: 152 [book 1, f. 85]). Sir Charles Eastlake, director of the National Gallery of London, made notes about the Cattaneo paintings as well when he visited Genoa on 30 August 1857 (his notes are at the National Gallery in London).
[3] Information on Monti and the relationship between Trotti, Colnaghi, and Knoedler is from records available at 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. 3.

1990

  • Anthony van Dyck, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990-1991, no. 35, color repro.

1999

  • Van Dyck 159-1641, Koninklijke Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999, no. 34, repro.

2007

  • The Changing Face of Childhood: British Children's Portraits and their Influence in Europe, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt; Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2007, no. 1, repro.

2022

  • Progetto Superbarocco - La forma della meraviglia. Capolavori a Genova 1600-1750, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Genova, 2022, no. 31, 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.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 124, repro.

1942

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

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 73, repro.

1951

  • King, Marian. Portfolio Number 3. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: no. 4, color repro.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 82, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 310, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 47.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:274, color repro.

1968

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

1975

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

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 46-47, pl. 24.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 263, no. 333, color repro.

1985

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

1994

  • Jaffe, Michael. "On Some Portraits Painted by Van Dyck in Italy, Mainly in Genoa." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 141-142.

2004

  • Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, 2004: II.37

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: 47-52, color repro.

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.

Inscriptions

center left: Ao 1623 AET. 18

Wikidata ID

Q20177019

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