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Overview

Peter Paul Rubens lived and studied in Italy between 1600 and 1609, absorbing the country's cultural riches and artistic heritage. During a stay in Genoa in 1606, he painted the portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria. The 22-year-old newlywed was from one of the republic's leading noble families. The imposing setting and the marchesa's aristocratic appearance leave little doubt that she was a person of wealth and status. Rubens integrated light and color, as well as the marchesa's pose and the dynamic diagonals of the architecture, to enliven her stately image. Light flooding into the scene creates boldly expressive folds in her heavy satin dress, while the red of the drape adds dramatic emphasis.  The direction of her gaze and the perspective of the architecture indicate that the painting was meant to be hung high on a wall—well above the viewer.

A drawing in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City reveals that the picture was originally even grander: Rubens executed a full-length portrait, with the marchesa standing on a terrace with a view into the distant landscape at the left, but unfortunately, at some point during the 19th century, the canvas was cut down to its present format.

The marchesa's young face, animated by her large, keen brown eyes and gentle smile, is set off by her enormous yet elegant ruff. Her commanding presence is further accentuated by the glowing satin, the lace of her gown, her jewels, and the elaborate hair ornament crowning her carefully curled locks. Behind her, the rich luster of the marble and stone of a palazzo add to the sense of limitless luxury. The Spinola family, major art patrons in Genoa, derived their affluence from mercantile and banking enterprises. It was the norm for families to consolidate their wealth through intermarriage, and Brigida Spinola married her cousin Giacomo Massimiliano Doria in 1605.  Widowed in 1613, she later married the widower Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale, a senator of the Genoese republic who was also devoted to poetry and art collecting.  The marchesa's self-possession also may have been engendered by the unusual—for that era—legal rights and civic role that Genoa's constitution granted its women. The future Pope Pius II, while still a youthful secretary to a Cardinal, commented that Genoa was a "paradise for women."

Rubens visited Genoa, a wealthy financial and mercantile center, at least twice and clearly admired the city and its people. Their active lifestyles as bankers, merchants, ship owners, and military leaders would have reminded him of Antwerp, the economic and cultural center of the Southern Netherlands. By the time he made this portrait, Rubens had been in Italy six years. Trained in classical ideals and philosophy, he had travelled from Antwerp to Italy around 1600 to experience firsthand its artistic traditions, not only those coming from antiquity and the Renaissance, including the work of Raphael and Michelangelo, but also those being created by contemporary artists such as Caravaggio.  The inspiration he gained from this multifaceted exposure profoundly affected his own style of painting and became the foundation for his future work.

Following his stay in Italy, Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1609, at the start of the Twelve Years' Truce, and became court painter to the regents for the Spanish crown in the Southern Netherlands, Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella.  It was a period of peace and prosperity, and Rubens's international artistic reputation resulted in numerous commissions for portraits and grand history paintings.  He established a large workshop and developed close working relationships with other important masters, including Anthony van Dyck, whose portrait of Brigida Spinola's second husband, Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale, is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art (NGA 1942.9.89).  Rubens's majestic Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria also inspired Van Dyck's Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo (NGA 1942.9.92), the imposing portrait of another Genoese noblewoman, which is a collection highlight as well.

Inscription

on reverse transcribed from front by later hand before painting was trimmed: BRIGIDA. SPINVLA. DORIA / ANN: SAL: 1606. / AET: SVAE .22. / P.P. RVBENS Ft (Brigida Spinola Doria. Aged 22 in the year of our Lord 1606. Made by P.P. Rubens)

Provenance

The sitter's first husband, Marchese Giacomi Massimiliano Doria [1571-1613, married 9 July 1605], Genoa; by bequest to his brother, Giovanni Carlo Doria [1576-1625], Genoa;[1] passed, probably in 1625, to the sitter's second husband, Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale [1582-1648, married 4 August 1621], Genoa;[2] probably the sitter, until her death; probably by bequest 1661 to the sitter's stepson and son-in-law, Francesco Maria Imperiale, Mantua;[3] Imperiale Family, Genoa and Mantua;[4] gift from the head of the Imperiale Family to Rati Opizzone's father-in-law; by inheritance to Rati Opizzone, Counselor of the State in Turin, by 1840.[5] Simon Horsín-Déon [1812-1882], Paris, by 1848.[6] J. Pariss, London, by 1854; (sale, Christie & Manson, London, 4 February 1854, no. 76, bought in); purchased after the sale by (Charles J. Nieuwenhuys, Brussels and London), for 60 guineas;[7] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 17 July 1886, no. 92);[8] (Charles J. Wertheimer, London), for 304.10. Probably Lawrence Currie [d. 1934], Minley Manor, Hampshire; by inheritance to his son, Betram George Francis Currie, Minley Manor; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 16 April 1937, no. 116);[9] purchased by (Arthur Goldschmidt, London) for (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[10] sold 1957 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[11] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] Piero Boccardo, "Ritratti di Genovesi di Rubens e di van Dyck: contesto e identificazioni," in Susan J. Barnes and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., eds., Van Dyck 350, Hanover and London, 1994: 95-96, note 11.

[2] Boccardo 1994, 95-96, note 11. The painting is not mentioned in the inventory made at the death of Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale in 1648 (Renato Martinoni, Gian Vincenzo Imperiale - Politio, letterato e collezionista Genovese del Seicento, Padua, 1983: 231-242). Martinoni also records the date of Giovanni Vicenzo Imperiale's marriage to Brigida Spinola Doria (Martinoni 1983, 48).

[3] The Marchesa's death date is not known. The painting was recorded in the 1661 inventory of Francesco Maria Imperiale's collection at his residence in Mantua. See Martinoni 1983, 178-179; Justus Müller Hofstede, "Bildnisse aus Rubens' Italienjahren," Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 2 (1965): 141 note 15, 143 note 30.

[4] After this point in the painting's provenance, contradictory records emerge. In the catalogue of the 17 July 1886 Nieuwenhuys sale at Christie's, the painting is described as having been in the collection of General Sir John Murray, 8th Bart., of Clermont, Fifeshire, Scotland, by 1827, the year of the General's death, and then, by 1830, in the collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence. Yet William J. Bankes apparently saw the Spinola Doria portrait in Rati Opizzone's collection shortly before 1640 (see note 6 below). Thus, it is unlikely that the painting was in General Murray's collection by 1827, as indicated in the 1886 sale catalogue.

[5] An undated note written by William J. Bankes of Kington Lacy (in the Bankes papers, Dorset County Record Office), who acquired two full-length portraits by Rubens of Genoese nobility sometime before 1840, reads: "TORINO/ Chevr Rati Opizzone/ Consiller d'Etat à Turin. Rue de la Providence No: 22: has the companion picture by Rubens of the pair which I purchased; portrait of a Lady full length (standing) (with a fan) the same date upon it 1606, & the age, & name of the Lady (Spinola Doria, I think) -- is desirous of selling it; it was a present from the head of the Family Imperiali to his (the Chevr's) father-in-law when the Imperiali was quitting the palace in Campetto." See Gervase Jackson-Stops, ed., The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1985: 558-559, no. 496.

[6] P. Hédouin, "Cabinets d'Amateurs. Collection de M. Horsin d'Éon[sic]," L'Artiste. Revue de Paris 11 (30 January 1848): 202-203, with a full-length lithograph. Horsín-Déon's description of the painting (Simon Horsín-Déon, De la conservation et de la restauration des tableaux: elements de l'art du restaurateur..., Paris, 1851: 35), indicates that the painting was no longer in his possession.

[7] The description in the 1854 catalogue of this painting as "whole length" and the sitter "standing on the terrace of a palace" clearly demonstrates that the painting was only cut down after that date. In this sale the portrait of Spinola Doria is offered with its companion, a full-length portrait of the Doge of Genoa that, from its description, is likely the portrait of Spinola Doria's second husband, Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale, now in the Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

Christie's records for the sale indicate that both lots were the property of J. Pariss, and that they were both bought in, with lot no. 76 being sold later to Nieuwenhuys (letter of 9 December 1975 from Patrick Lindsay of Christie's to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files). According to Carlotta D'Addato of the Library at Christie's (e-mail of 16 April 1999, in NGA curatorial files), E. McLean, the dealer with whom this painting is often connected in the literature, was an active buyer at the 1854 sale, but did not purchase this work.

Ms. D'Addato included in her communication a page partially accounting the sale totals, where lot no. 76 clearly is marked with an x (not sold, or bought in at 70 guineas). This page also includes, in different handwriting, a tally of the sale (668.12.6), and below this an entry for what appears to be NGA 1961.9.60 (76 - 60 - -[guineas] -Nieuwenhuys). The final tally of the sale was thus 728.12.6. It seems that after the sale Nieuwenhuys was able to acquire the painting for 10 guineas less than its buy-in price (see NGA curatorial records).

[8] In this sale, the painting was described as being a 3/4 length portrait, which indicates that it had been cut down between 1854, when it was listed as a full length portrait in the sale catalogue, and 1886. Because Charles J. Nieuwenhuys bought the painting in 1854 and it was included in his sale in 1886, he appears to have been responsible for the reduction. However, since Nieuwenhuys was primarily a dealer, he may have sold the painting in the intervening 32 years and reacquired it prior to the 1886 sale.

[9] The sale catalogue states that the painting was among the property removed from Minley Manor, the estate of Bertram Currie, esq. In the literature on this painting, Bertram Currie has been interpreted as Bertram Wodehouse Currie, the grandfather of the seller, Bertram George Francis Currie, and thus the painting was thought to have been at Minley Manor through inheritance for three generations. However the Christie's catalogue only states that the sale will include "the properties of Bertram Currie, Esq.," not the estate, which might be the expected term if the property was in fact considered that of the elder Currie, who died in 1896.

Three catalogues privately printed by Bertram Wodehouse's son, Lawrence Currie, of the collections in the familial residences of Coombe Warren, Richmond Terrace, and Minley Manor, provide a good picture of the eldest Currie's collection. However, the Rubens is not listed amongst the possessions, which are painstakingly recorded. Indeed, of the 34 paintings and drawings listed in the 1937 catalogue of the sale at Christie's, only five paintings appeared in the Minley Manor catalogue of 1908, one painting in the Coombe Warren catalogue of 1908, and two paintings in the 1909 catalogue of Richmond Terrace. (See Lawrence Currie, Catalogue of the Collection of Works of Art at Minley Manor, London, 1908; Catalogue of the Collection of Works of Art at Coombe Warren, London, 1908; and Catalogue of the Collection of Works of Art, &c., at 1 Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, London, 1909.) It appears likely, then, that probably only after 1909 did Lawrence Currie, or possibly his son Bertram, acquire the bulk of the paintings offered in the 1937 sale.

[10] Letter of 30 April 1937 and cable of 7 May 1937, between two of the Duveen Brothers offices (Duveen Brothers Records, Box 286, folder 8, reel 141; accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; copies in NGA curatorial files).

[11] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1402.

Exhibition History

1952
Great Portraits by Famous Painters, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1952, no. 6.
1953
Flemish Art, 1300-1700, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1953-1954, no. 180.
1961
Exhibition of Art Treasures for America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1961-1962, no. 81.
1977
P.P. Rubens: Paintings - Oilsketches - Drawings [part of Pietro Pauolo Rubens: Rubensjaar 1577-1977], Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, June-September 1977, no. 7, repro.
1977
Rubens in Italien: Gemälde, Ölskizzen, Zeichnungen [part of Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640], Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, October-December 1977, no. 91, color repro. (in Katalog I).
1984
Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works from North American Collections, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1984-1985, no. 60, repro.
1990
Pietro Paulo Rubens (1577-1640), Palazzo della Ragione, Padua; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome; Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente, Milan, 1990, no. 23, repro.
1993
The Age of Rubens, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, 1993-1994, no. 8, repro.
1994
A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, four venues, 1994-1995, no. 11, repro. (shown only at last two venues: Seattle Art Museum and California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco).
1997
Van Dyck a Genova: Grande pittura e collezionismo, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 1997, no. 19, repro.
2004
L'Età di Rubens. Dimore, committenti e collezionisti genovesi, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 2004, no. 29, repro.
2005
Rubens: A Master in the Making, The National Gallery, London, 2005-2006, no. 22, repro.
2008
El retrato del Renacimiento [Madrid title], Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian [London title], Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; National Gallery, London, 2008-2009, no. 126, repro. (shown only in Madrid).

Bibliography

1961
Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 144, fig. 135, color fig. 136.
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: 118.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 105, repro.
1970
Jaffé, Michael. "Some Recent Acquisitions of Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painting." Studies in the History of Art 1969 (1970): 26-29, fig. 33.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 314, repro.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 101-103, figs. 95, 96, color repro (detail).
1977
Pope-Hennessy, John. "Completing the Account." Review of Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, London 1977. Times Literary Supplement no. 3,927 (17 June 1977).
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 259, no 327, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 361, repro.
1994
Boccardo, Piero. "Ritratii di Genovesi di Rubens e di Van Dyck: Contesto ed identificazioni." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 80-81, repro. no. 1.
1994
Cataldi Gallo, Marzia, "Per una Storia del Costume Genovese nel Primo Quarto del Seicento." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 119.
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.
1997
Richler, Martha. National Gallery of Art, Washington: A World of Art. London, 1997: 64, fig. 5.
1999
Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 127, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 223, no. 179, color repro.
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: 154-159, 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: 138, front cover color repro.
2020
Wheelock, Arthur K. Jr. “Pleasure and Prestige: The Complex History of Collecting Flemish Art in America.” 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: 17, color wrapper.

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