28 ANTHONY VAN DYCK Flemish, 1599-1641 Thomas Howard, The Earl of Arundel, circa 1620-21 Oil on canvas 102.8 x 79.4 cm (40½ x 31¼ in.) 86.PA.532 Thomas Howard, second Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), was one of the great collectors of art and patrons of artists in early seventeenth-century England. With his interests shared by King Charles I, the earl was able to restore the status of his recently disgraced house to its former glory. This portrait attests to Arundel's gifted connoisseurship. Apparently recognizing Van Dyck's talent before most of his contemporaries, he commissioned the work between 1620 and 1621, during the artist's first brief stay in England. It is one of only three surviving paintings from this visit. Arundel is shown as a member of the Order of the Garter; he holds the gold medallion of Saint George (the so-called lesser George), one of the emblems worn by the twenty-four knights who constituted the most eminent and noble men around the king. To the right, with a few broad strokes, Van Dyck has freely evoked a landscape that pays homage to both Arundel's and his own admiration of Venetian painting, especially Titian's late works. Van Dyck's ability to instill his sitters with a sensitive grandeur made him the most famous Flemish portraitist in Europe. This work already heralds his genius, which would later come to epitomize the Stuart court in the 1630s. DJ 54 DUTCH AND FLEMISH SCHOOLS