DYCK, Sir Anthony van
(b. 1599, Antwerpen, d. 1641, London)

Portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio

c. 1625
Oil on canvas, 195 x 147 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio (1579-1644), an Italian cardinal, statesman and historian, commissioned this portrait of himself. As papal nuncio, he had work for peace between the Catholics and the Protestants in Flanders, and the Catholics and the French Protestants (the Huguenots) in France. Van Dyck, refining the robust style of his master, Rubens, specialized in long, sensitive fingers and the lush treatment of fabrics - note the sitter's moiré robe.