Autoritratto

Van Dyck was barely into his twenties here, freshly out of Antwerp and Rubens's crowded workshop and newly arrived in Italy. There he studied the old masters, and one of them shaped how he chose to present himself. He had seen a portrait then believed to be a self-portrait by Raphael, and he copied it into his travel album. So he leans on a broken stone column and turns to you with unhurried confidence, dressed less like a working painter than a young gentleman. This is the artist he wanted to be, refined and independent. The half-ruined column was a familiar sign of how fleeting youth and fame are. The picture reached the Hermitage in 1772, bought with a French collection assembled by the financier Crozat.