Portrait of a Nobleman, traditionally identified as Lord Rhodokanakis-Giustiniani of Chios, in a fur hat and gown,
oil on panel, 62 x 46 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Belgium

We are grateful to Bert Schepers of the Rubenianum, Antwerp, for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

The present panel relates to a portrait in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden (inv. no. 1035, oil on canvas, 117 x 97 cm), traditionally attributed to Anthony van Dyck and identified as Prince Rhodokanakis-Giustiniani of Chios. At the time of execution, the Genoese lords of Chios had been dislodged by the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1566. In the present picture the dynamic handling of the gold chain indicating the sitter’s noble status and the vibrant treatment of his fairly exotic costume does imbue him with the air of an exiled Aegean Prince. Furthermore, van Dyck’s activity in both Genoa and Antwerp, where there were long-standing trade and familial links, lends the suggestion plausibility.

Although the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, still catalogues its portrait as an autograph work of van Dyck, the canvas is held by contemporary scholarship to be of the master’s school, rather than by his own hand, which throws up intriguing questions as to who executed the present panel. A drawn copy after the head of the Dresden portrait was sold at Galerie Moderne, 13 September 2016, lot 232 (as after Van Dyck), and a three-quarter-length version painted on canvas is conserved in the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, Aachen (inv. no. GK 136) and is now associated with Pieter Franchoys, a pupil of Gerard Seghers. The present panel has less of the Flemish-Caravaggesque register associated with the two Mechelen masters, with the loose and rapid handling of the sitter’s hair and collar rather suggesting the large Antwerp entourage of van Dyck.