Mar 17
Portrait of Maria de Tassis (1611–1638)
Artist: Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641)
Date: c. 1629-1630
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Liechtenstein. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna, Austria
Description
The portrait of Maria de Tassis is among Anthony van Dyck’s masterpieces, not least on account of its supreme painterly refinement. The sitter’s family were originally from Bergamo in northern Italy, and had developed the first postal system in Europe during the late fifteenth century. Maria came from the branch of the family that had settled in Antwerp and which traditionally supplied the post of Imperial Postmaster. The portrait shows her at the age of around nineteen.
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