Some of the master’s most precious works at the Louvre belong to his
second Antwerp period, which extended from his return from Genoa in
1628 to his departure for England in 1632. It was probably then that he
painted _The Virgin and Child, with the Penitent Sinners_ (No. 1961)
(Mary Magdalen, David, and the Prodigal Son), in which the influence of
the Venetian colourists is so clearly to be noticed. Indeed, the bosom
of the female penitent is copied from the nymph in Titian’s _Education
of Cupid_ at the Borghese Gallery, of which there is a drawing in the
Chatsworth Sketch-book with the comment in the artist’s handwriting,
“_quel admirabil petto_.” Shortly after his return from Italy he
also painted _The Virgin and Child with Donors_ (No. 1962), one of
his greatest masterpieces. The Madonna is of a youthful, pure type,
vastly different from the buxom Flemish women so often depicted by his
master in saintly characters. The painting of the Infant’s body is as
admirable as that of the kneeling Donors, and a spiritual connection is
established by the action of the Child and the expression of the man
towards whom He is holding out His hand.
The companion groups _A Gentleman and a Child_ (No. 1973) and _A Lady
and her Daughter_ (No. 1974), date from about 1630. They are full of
that aristocratic distinction which is the hall-mark of Van Dyck’s
Genoese portraits, and which in his later English period was apt to
degenerate into effeminacy. This air of distinction is also to be
noted in the children, although they are perfectly natural in action
and expression, and have none of that stiffness which makes so many of
the earlier masters’ portraits of children look like undergrown men
and women. The imposing equestrian portrait of _Francisco d’Aytona,
Marqués de Moncada_ (No. 1971), Generalissimus of the Spanish troops
in the Netherlands, which in its general disposition recalls the
portrait of Charles I. at Windsor Castle; the small study for it of the
same sitter’s head and shoulders (No. 1972); and the portrait of _The
Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, Regent of the Netherlands_ (No. 1970),
in the costume of the Sisters of St. Clare, whom she had joined after
the death of her husband the Archduke Albrecht, belong to the same
period. Then also was painted the _Rinaldo in the Garden of Armida_
(No. 1966), which is probably the picture bought from the artist at
Antwerp by Endymion Porter, on behalf of King Charles I., in March
1629, for the price of £78.
“LE ROI À LA CHASSE”
Van Dyck’s manner of life in England, as the petted Court painter of
Charles I., and the factory-like output of his well-organised studio at
Blackfriars, are too well known to need further comment. In justice to
his fair fame it is necessary to draw a clear distinction between the
innumerable replicas turned out by his assistants under his guidance,
and such magnificent original works from the master’s own brush as the
glorious _Portrait of King Charles I. of England_ (No. 1967, Plate
XXIII.), known as “_Le Roi à la Chasse_,” which is one of the proudest
possessions of the French national collection. The king is seen,
resting his gloved hand on a stick, in a glade, with the sea in the
distance. Behind him are two attendants and his white charger pawing
the ground in impatient action. The king’s noble, quiet dignity is such
as to dominate the entire composition, without, however, the slightest
hint of the theatrical. Here, as in most of his English portraits,
Van Dyck has departed from the glowing sumptuousness of his earlier
Venetian palette, and arrived at a cooler, mellow, and more personal
harmony of decorative colour. As if conscious of the superior merit of
this picture, which is more than a mere portrait of the king, and
depicts the very personification of royalty, the artist, who was not in
the habit of signing his pictures, inscribed on a stone the lettering