Portrait of the Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo

Van Dyck was still in his early twenties when he came to Genoa in the 1620s and found steady work painting its merchant aristocracy. Here, around 1623, the Marchesa Elena Grimaldi sweeps forward on the terrace of her family palazzo, her black gown vast against the pale columns, while a young African attendant lifts a bright red parasol behind her head. That figure is a reminder that Genoa was an active port in the slave trade, and van Dyck, following the example of Titian, used such servants to set off the grandeur of his sitters. The low viewpoint makes her tower over us. These tall Genoese portraits taught him the swagger he would later carry to the court of Charles the First in England.