La Virgen con dos donantes

Anthony van Dyck painted this in Antwerp in 1630, in the few settled years he spent back home between a long stay in Italy and the fame that awaited him as court painter to Charles I of England. A wealthy man and woman kneel on either side of the Virgin and Child, hands pressed together in devotion. We no longer know who they were, only that they could afford one of the most sought-after painters in Europe to place them beside the Madonna. Van Dyck gives them the soft silks and easy grace he had learned from Titian in Venice. The picture pleased royalty in the end, entering the collection of Louis XIV of France within about fifty years.