Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Prince of Oneglia

Van Dyck painted this in Palermo in the spring or summer of 1624, during his years learning his trade in Italy. His sitter was Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, the Spanish king's viceroy in Sicily, shown at three-quarter length with a commander's baton in one hand and the other resting on his sword, his helmet and gauntlets on the table behind. As Van Dyck worked, plague was spreading through the city. The prince caught it and died on 3 August that same year, aged 36. Van Dyck himself got out of Palermo, and the portrait, finished almost on the edge of the outbreak, now hangs in a gallery in south London.