Anthony van Dyck, 1623 - Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo - fine art print

Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo is a piece of art created by the Dutch painter Anthony van Dyck. The 390 year old painting measures the size - 242,9 x 138,5 cm (95 5/8 x 54 1/2 in). Oil on canvas was applied by the painter as the technique for the artwork. The artpiece is included in the digital collection of National Gallery of Art, which is the museum of the US-American nation that preserves, collects, exhibits, and fosters an understanding of works of art. This masterpiece, which belongs to the public domain is supplied with courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington.The creditline of the artpiece is the following: . Moreover, alignment of the digital reproduction is in portrait format with a side ratio of 9 : 16, meaning that the length is 45% shorter than the width. The translator, author, dramaturge, painter, theater director, etcher Anthony van Dyck was a European artist from the Netherlands, whose artistic style can mainly be classified as Baroque. The Baroque painter was born in 1599 in Antwerp, Antwerpen province, Flanders, Belgium and passed away at the age of 42 in 1641 in London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom.

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We offer a range of different materials and sizes for every product. The following options are available for individualization:

• Metal print (aluminium dibond): This is a metal print made on aluminium dibond material with an impressive depth effect. The Aluminium Dibond Print is the ideal start to fine replicas manufactured with aluminum. For your Aluminium Dibond print, we print the artwork onto the surface of the aluminum composite. The colors of the print are luminous and bright in the highest definition, fine details appear crisp and clear.
• Acrylic glass print: A glossy print on acrylic glass, which is sometimes described as a plexiglass print, transforms an original work of art into gorgeous décor. The major advantage of an acrylic glass art print is that contrasts and small details will be more visible due to the subtle tonal gradation.
• Canvas print: A printed canvas, which should not be confused with a real painting on a canvas, is a digital image printed on an industrial printer. A canvas print has the advantage of being relatively low in weight. This means, it is easy to hang up your Canvas print without the support of extra wall-mounts. Because of thatcanvas prints are suitable for any kind of wall.
• The poster print on canvas material: Our poster print is a printed flat cotton canvas paper with a fine surface structure, that resembles the original work of art. A poster print is optimally suited for framing the art replica with a customized frame. Please keep in mind, that depending on the size of the poster we add a white margin of something between 2-6cm around the painting, which facilitates the framing.

Important legal note: We do everything in order to depict our art products as precisely as possible and to exhibit them visually. Still, the colors of the printed materials and the imprint may differ to a certain extent from the representation on the monitor. Depending on your settings of your screen and the condition of the surface, color pigments might not be printed as realisitcally as the digital version shown here. Since the art prints are processed and printed by hand, there might as well be slight deviations in the exact position and the size of the motif.

About the article

Details about the original artpiece

Artist overview

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(© - National Gallery of Art - National Gallery of Art)

Here he had numerous opportunities to paint portraits in which he was marvelously successful and had few equals. He painted Cavaliers and Ladies of our city and all of them so lifelike and invested with a certain air, that . . . . one could sense the spirit of their nobility.

• Raffaele Soprani, Le vite de pittori, scoltori, et architetti genovesi, 1674, on Anthony van Dyck's stay in Genoa

The resplendent Marchesa Cattaneo strides onto the terrace of her Genoese palazzo while her African servant shields her with a bright red parasol. Her steady gaze and proud bearing tell us that she is a confident woman. Anthony van Dyck had a remarkable ability to understand his patrons' aspirations and to express them in his portraits, whether it be the inner strength of a Flemish burgher, the dashing bravura of a military hero, the innocence of a young girl, or the grace of an aristocrat such as Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo. Partly because of the extraordinary surety of his brushwork and the fluidity of his forms, Van Dyck convinces the viewer that his characterizations are just. In truth, however, one knows little or nothing about the personalities or ambitions of most of his sitters, particularly those he portrayed in Genoa. Nevertheless, this portrait's details and composition assure us of the sophistication of this altera donna, or grand lady. The Marchesa's exceptional and disproportionate height emphasizes her stature, literally and figuratively. The red sunshade emphasizes the viewer's position beneath hers and extends her presence, forming a halo around her head against a dramatic sky. The red cuffs break up the severity of the Marchesa's lavish, black costume and draw attention to her hands—especially to the sprig of orange blossoms in her right hand, a traditional symbol of chastity.

Without knowing his actual state of servitude, the black attendant holding the marchesa's parasol is a reminder of the active slave trade from Africa to Genoa. His inclusion in the portrait may derive artistically from Titian, the Italian Renaissance artist Van Dyck admired and who portrayed black servants in several of his canvases.

In the same year he created this portrait, Van Dyck also painted the marchesa's two eldest children, Filippo (1619–1684) and Maddalena Cattaneo (born in 1621), both the National Gallery of Art collection (1942.9.93, 1942.9.94). An Englishman visiting the Palazzo Cattaneo in December 1827 saw the three portraits hung as a group, with the children flanking their mother. P. A. B. Widener's purchase of all three portraits in 1908 allows the museum to replicate that arrangement today.

Van Dyck studied and worked in Italy from late 1621 until 1627. While the port of Genoa was his base, he also made numerous trips of varying duration to other Italian cities, including an eight-month stay in Rome in 1622. In Genoa, he encountered the majestic portraits Peter Paul Rubens had painted there in 1606, including Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria (NGA 1961.9.60), a grand work that inspired this portrayal of Marchesa Cattaneo. The marchesa's parasol and the architectural setting, with its delicately carved Corinthian columns, are directly related to Rubens's use of imposing architecture, terrace setting, red drapery, and overall sense of grandeur in the Spinola Doria portrait. (Source: National Gallery of Art)

Notes from the Contributor: This stern-looking and well-dressed woman is the Genoese Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo. More information