Portrait of Agostino Pallavicini

In February 1621 the cardinals in Rome elected a new pope, Gregory XV, and the Republic of Genoa sent Agostino Pallavicini to him as its ambassador. This portrait, dated about 1621, records that job. The enormous crimson robe taking up most of the canvas is the official dress that went with the office, and van Dyck spends most of his skill there, on the sheen of the silk and the way each fold catches the light differently. Up on the left, worked into the hanging behind the chair, is the Pallavicini coat of arms, one of the things that let the sitter be named with confidence. Genoa went on using him. In 1637 the republic elected him doge, its head of state, and he served the usual two-year term, to 1639.