Portrait of Marie-Louise de Tassis

The young woman in the sumptuous silk gown belongs to one of the quietly powerful families of Europe. The de Tassis, or Taxis, had built the first proper postal network across the continent in the late 15th century, and for generations they held the post of Imperial Postmaster, carrying the letters of kings and merchants along fixed relays of horses. Maria was born into the Antwerp branch of that dynasty. Van Dyck painted her around 1629, when she was about 19, in Antwerp between his long stays in Italy and England. He works the gold braid, the puffed sleeves and the ostrich-feather fan with obvious relish, the deep glowing colour openly owed to Titian, whom he revered. She wears the French court fashion of the day. Maria would die young, at 27.