.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Marchese Ambrogio Spinola (1569-1630) belonged to the most ancient of the four great families of Genoa. He followed his brother, Federigo, into the service of the King of Spain and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces of King Phillip III in the Low Countries, taking Ostend after a two year siege in 1604. For this he was awarded the Golden Fleece. In 1605 he forced Prince Maurice of Nassau to raise the siege of Ghent, taking the provinces of Frisia and Ober-Yssel. Peace with the Dutch was finally achieved in 1607. In 1620, on the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, Spinola conquered the Lower Palatinate and a year later he returned to the Low Countries, taking Julier and besieging Bergen-op-Zoom, the retreat from which he commanded with great skill. The climax of his military career was the seige of Breda, which finally surrendered on 5 June 1625: Velázquez's great commemoration of this event in the Prado gives an extraordinary idea of Spinola's unusual combination of authority and courtesy. Spinola was recalled to Madrid in 1628; en route he advised King Louis XIII about his conduct of the siege of La Rochelle. The outbreak of the War of Mantuan Succession led to his return to Italy where he died during the siege of Casale. His departure for Spain in 1628 establishes a terminus ante quem for the execution of this portrait.
After this portrait was cleaned in 1967, it was accepted as an autograph work of Van Dyck by the late Professor Michael Jaffé. In a letter of 9 September 1999, Dr. Horst Vey notes that its status is similar to that of the portrait of Charles, Marquis de Vieuville (sold, Christie's, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 77) and characterises this picture as a repetition or copy of a lost full-length, observing that 'such shortened copies of full-lengths abound in Van Dyck's oeuvre'. The half-length reduction of the present portrait in the Francine and Stirling Clark Institute at Williamstown, however, may well depend on this portrait. Moreover, the composition in the present case seems perfectly calculated for a three-quarter-length portrait. The picture was clearly laid in and partly executed by assistants: however, Van Dyck's personal intervention in this is suggested not only by the face, and such details as the armour and the Golden Fleece, but also by significant pentimenti: Spinola's right arm was originally further to the left, and the baton was held at a slightly higher angle. Some ostensibly weaker areas of the picture, the right side of the ruff and Spinola's sword hilt, have been damaged in the past and are thus in unreliable condition.
After this portrait was cleaned in 1967, it was accepted as an autograph work of Van Dyck by the late Professor Michael Jaffé. In a letter of 9 September 1999, Dr. Horst Vey notes that its status is similar to that of the portrait of Charles, Marquis de Vieuville (sold, Christie's, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 77) and characterises this picture as a repetition or copy of a lost full-length, observing that 'such shortened copies of full-lengths abound in Van Dyck's oeuvre'. The half-length reduction of the present portrait in the Francine and Stirling Clark Institute at Williamstown, however, may well depend on this portrait. Moreover, the composition in the present case seems perfectly calculated for a three-quarter-length portrait. The picture was clearly laid in and partly executed by assistants: however, Van Dyck's personal intervention in this is suggested not only by the face, and such details as the armour and the Golden Fleece, but also by significant pentimenti: Spinola's right arm was originally further to the left, and the baton was held at a slightly higher angle. Some ostensibly weaker areas of the picture, the right side of the ruff and Spinola's sword hilt, have been damaged in the past and are thus in unreliable condition.