Paolina Adorno Brignole-Sale

By 1627 Van Dyck had spent six years working among the merchant princes of Genoa, and this was his last year in the city before he moved on. Paolina Adorno had married into the Brignole-Sale family, one of the richest in a republic that lived on banking and sea trade, and their household ledgers still survive. They record a payment to the painter that year for her portrait and her husband's together, which is why we can date them so exactly. The two canvases have never been separated. She stands nearly life-size in a shimmering silk gown, one hand resting on a chair, painted in the very rooms of the palace where you can still find her today.