1599-1641
Like the Lucas van Uffel, shown on this same wall, the Marchesa Durazzo is of Van Dyck’s so called Italian period, that is to say, before 1627. I t comes from the collection of the Marchese Gropallo at Genoa, and later belonged to Rodolphe Kann in Paris. I t is described and illustrated by Wilhelm Bode in the catalogue of the Kann Collection, where it is spoken of as “one of the most sympathetic figures that Van Dyck has painted.”
The Durazzi were a noble family of Genoa, who were notable patrons of the arts in Van Dyck’s time, commissioning several works of Van Dyck, among others our picture and the celebrated Marchesa Caterina Durazzo with her two children (now in Genoa in the Palazzo Durazzo-Pallavicini), which Jacob Burckhardt considered the most beautiful painting of Van Dyck’s Genoese visit.