The aristocratic portraits painted by Van Dyck in the Republic of Genoa during the 1620s have become famous as definitively charismatic images of a ruling elite, the Genoese nobility being constitutionally defined as the governing class of the state. From the earliest written accounts of them a generic, collective appeal has been ascribed to these prepotently glamorous images, glossing over the specific meanings which any individual image might express. This study of two principal portraits uses their contrasting significances to expound the tension between established and shifting ideas of nobility which informed the thinking and behaviour of the Genoese patriciate, and of which Van Dyck shows perceptive awareness.
