spanishbaroqueart:Anthony van DyckPortrait of Albert de Ligne, Prince of Barbançon and Arenbe
spanishbaroqueart:Anthony van DyckPortrait of Albert de Ligne, Prince of Barbançon and Arenberg; c. 1628–1632York Museums Trust, York City Art Gallery (YORAG : 1345) Albert de Ligne is depicted standing, full-length, dressed in black, with a column in the background. The large key that the the sitter wears tucked into his belt was the ensign of the office of the Chamberlain. Albert de Ligne received the Order of the Golden Fleece on 18 June 1628, and this portrait may have been commissioned to commemorate that honour. It was surely painted in Antwerp before 1632, when Van Dyck went to England. (Source)Van Dyck’s portrait of Albert de Ligne in Spanish costume, compared to Velázquez’s portrait of Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (1624). Van Dyck followed the style of the traditional royal portraiture in vogue in Spain. Both noblemen, liegemen of the Spanish Monarchy, were depicted with the same symbolic attributes.Albert de Ligne (1600–1674), Prince of Barbançon and Arenberg, knight of the Golden Fleece, was a Netherlandish nobleman and military commander in the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War. He was commander in chief of the Spanish forces in Bohemia, Westphalia and the Netherlands. In 1622 Isabella Clara Eugenia, governor general of the Spanish Netherlands, appointed him general of a Walloon regiment. During the campaign of 1625 he became general in chief of the bandes d'ordonnance. On 19 June 1627 he was awarded the Golden Fleece by Philip IV of Spain, being invested in Brussels on 18 June 1628. Portraits of King Philip IV of Spain (1623-28), and his brother, the Infante Charles of Austria (1626-27), by Diego Velázquez. Van Dyck’s portrait of Albert de Ligne follows their depiction.On 27 April 1634 the Marquis of Aytona, on Philip IV’s orders, had Barbançon arrested for having corresponded with Cardinal Richelieu in the context of the Conspiracy of Nobles (1632). Information against him had been provided by Balthazar Gerbier, Charles I of England’s resident agent in Brussels. After years in prison, mostly in the citadel of Antwerp, but some of the time in Vilvoorde Castle and the castle of Rupelmonde, the prince was ordered released by acting governor general Francisco de Melo on 24 December 1642. He had been repeatedly investigated and questioned, but never formally brought to trial or sentenced. Only in 1658 was he again commissioned as a royal officer, being appointed commander of the garrison of Ypres and captain general of artillery. He died in Madrid in April 1674. (Source) -- source link