Nicolas Lanier

Nicolas Lanier (1588–1666) had been court musical director to Charles I since 1625 and was one of the agents the English king sent to Mantua in order to monitor the transport to London of the ducal collection he had acquired a short time earlier. The precious cargo was first brought to Antwerp, where the present portrait was probably painted. According to contemporary sources, Lanier spent seven days in van Dyck’s studio, sitting for the Flemish painter, who had returned from Italy only a short time earlier (1627). They possibly knew one another from van Dyck’s first short stay in England (1620/21). Lanier, his right arm self-confidently placed a kimbo, is clad in silken courtly attire. Covering his left shoulder and upper body, the black fabric of his cloak creates an impressive contrast to the red and white colour of his shirt; his right hand is hidden beneath it, while his left rests on the hilt of his sword. The narrow vista of an idyllic landscape extends the image towards the back. Lanier’s posture and expression are in keeping with sprezzatura, the “elegant nonchalance” typical of the ideal courtier, described by Baldassare Castiglione in his Book of the Courtier (Il Libro del Cortegiano, 1528) and especially cultivated at the Stuart court. In addition, van Dyck adopted a classical compositional type from Titian. He probably did so in the knowledge that Lanier would give the picture to the English king, who with the ducal collection of Mantua had just acquired one of the finest collections of Venetian paintings. Van Dyck’s tribute to Titian probably resulted in his being summoned again to the English court in 1632, where he would create a new type of English noble portrait that has retained its effectiveness to this day. © Cäcilia Bischoff, Masterpieces of the Picture Gallery. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2010