Here, finally, he was called upon to paint some of his grandest equestrian portraits, and the often-recurring grey steed with flowing mane (an admirable study of which belongs to Lord Brownlow) was first employed for the portrait of Antonio Giulio Brignole (still at Genoa). As with Rubens, Titian seems to have been paramount in Van Dyck's regard. We know he possessed copies of the master's best works, and several little sketches in the British Museum and in the Chatsworth sketch-book bear proof of his devout study of the great Venetian. Some of Van Dyck's earlier paintings, religious and mythological—the "Tribute Money" (Palazzo Bianco), "Holy Family" (Turin), "Virgin and Saints" (Louvre), "Virgin" (Grosvenor House), are certainly Titianesque in the extreme.
In 1624 Van Dyck sailed from Genoa to Palermo and there painted several persons of rank, including the viceroy, Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy. While in Sicily he became acquainted with the painter Sofonisba Anguisciola (or Angussola), who was then ninety-six years of age and blind; and he was wont to say that he had received more valuable information from a blind woman than from many a seeing man. There is a "Virgin and Child" by Van Dyck at S. Caterina in Palermo, and a "Virgin and Child with Saints" in the same city. Bellori tells us that plague com pelled him to leave abruptly, taking with him an unfinished pic ture of St. Rosalia, completed in Genoa. The composition was repeated in Antwerp for the Bachelor's Brotherhood, a picture now in Vienna. Van Dyck most probably remained in Genoa till 1626, and here in all likelihood he painted the De Jodes, father and son, the celebrated engravers, who are represented together in a masterly portrait in the Capitol at Rome.
Traversing the Mont Cenis pass, Van Dyck stopped at Aix with Peiresc, the famous scholar and friend of Rubens, and probably proceeded straight to Antwerp. His beautiful portrait of Langlois, the Paris print-seller, from which it was con jectured that he spent some time at Paris, was unquestionably painted in Genoa By March 3, 1628 he was back at Antwerp. One of his sisters had died in a convent the year before, and he now made a will in favour of Susan and Isabella, two other sisters, also nuns. That Van Dyck was in Antwerp on May 18, is proved by a letter from Lord Carlisle to Buckingham (Sainsbury, ciii.).
the earliest works after his return to Antwerp is the "Crucifixion," given to the Dominican nuns, in accordance with the wish ex pressed by the painter's dying father, and now in the Antwerp museum. The figures are life-size, and at the foot of the cross, besides a weeping angel, are St. Catherine of Siena and St Dominic. Neither in type nor in general effect does it suggest the master's immediately preceding works. As a new feature we observe a kind of elegance, not entirely free from mannerism, which is often conspicuous with Van Dyck even when the techni cal excellence commands our warmest admiration. Inspiration was far more limited with Van Dyck than with Rubens. His delicate nature led him to restrain his conceptions within the bounds of an academic evenness. To Van Dyck's second—more justly speaking third—manner belong some of his best religious works. The "Crucifixion" in the cathedral at Mechlin is termed by Sir Joshua Reynolds one of the finest pictures in the world. Still finer are the two works painted for the Antwerp Jesuits and now at Vienna—"The Mystic Marriage of the Blessed Herman Joseph" and "St. Rosalia Crowned by the Infant Saviour." To this period likewise belong the celebrated "Elevation of the Cross" at Courtrai and the "St. Augustine in Ecstacy," in the church of the Jesuits at Antwerp; the general effect of this last, according to Reynolds, is inferior to that of the beautiful en graving by De Jode, and also to the earl of Northbrook's mag nificent sketch. Van Dyck's Flemish portraits indicate, tech nically speaking, a further step towards perfection. The darkness of the Genoese portraits has vanished ; broad daylight now freely illuminates the model, and such works as the portraits of Fran cisco de Moncada (Louvre) and of the Count de Bergh (Prado) are perhaps as close to material excellence as any painting could be. The full-length likenesses of Philip Le Roy (1630 and his wife (1631) (Wallace Collection) and of Mary Louisa of Tassis (Prince Liechtenstein, Vienna) deserve to rank among the most beautiful portraits ever painted. The "Snyders" at Castle Howard is regarded by Waagen as not inferior to the most celebrated Raphaels, Titians or Holbeins ; and of almost equal excellence are the "Wife of Colin de Nole" in the Munich gallery, the "Lady and her Daughter" at the Louvre, and the "Lady in Black" at Cassel.