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| Anthony van Dyck Portrait drawing of Orazio Gentileschi ca. 1627 British Museum |
The Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck met (and drew) the Italian painter Orazio Gentileschi in London in the late 1620s. Both were there, far from home, to participate in the rich painting culture established under Charles I. Later in the century William Aglionby looked back to this era as a sort of lost golden age: "King Charles the First was not only the greatest Favourer, but the truest Knower of all those Arts; and by his Countenance, the whole court gave themselves up to those Refined Pleasures; there being hardly a Man of Great Quality, that had not a Collection, either of Pictures or Antiques: Artists flowed in upon us from all parts: And had not the Bloody-Principled Zealots, who are Enemies to all the Innocent Pleasures of Life, under the pretext of a Reformed Sanctity, destroyed both the Best of Kings, and the Noblest of Courts, we might to this day have seen these Arts flourish amongst us; and particularly, this of Painting, which was the Darling of that Vertuous Monarch."
The lace ruffs and gold chains of the 1620s, the stiff brocades and stiff poses, enforced an elaborate artificiality, but the artifice never extended to faces. From behind the heaped-up conventions of fashion and privilege, idiosyncratic personalities with unidealized faces became objects of scrutiny.
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| Paulus Moreelse Portrait of Johanna Martens 1625 Prado |
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| workshop of Jan van Ravesteyn Portrait of Johann Conrad von Salm ca. 1622-25 Rijksmuseum |
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| Michael Janz van Mierevelt Portrait of Dudley Carleton ca. 1620 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Spanish painter Portrait of Isabel de Borbón, Queen of Spain ca. 1620 Prado |
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| Unknown painter Portrait of James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle 1628 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Michael Janz van Mierevelt Portrait of an unknown woman ca. 1628 Wallace Collection, London |
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| Unknown painter Portrait of Sir Heneage Finch 1620s National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Marcus Gheeraerts Portrait of Margaret Layton ca. 1620 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Thomas de Keyser Portrait of three children and a man 1622 Rijksmuseum |
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| studio of Michael Janz van Mierevelt Portrait of Anne, Lady Carleton ca. 1625 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Willem Cornelisz Duyster Portrait of a man 1627 oil on copper Rijksmusuem |
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| Ottavio Leoni A Cardinal's Procession, Rome 1621 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Juan van der Hamen Offering to Flora ca. 1627 Prado |