Daniel van den Dyck

London, Helikon, Exhibition of Old Masters, June-September 1974 (as by Domenico Fetti).

B. Nicolson, "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions", in Burlington Magazine, CXVI, No. 856, July 1974, p. 418 (where rejected as a work by Domenico Fetti);
M. Gregori, Giacomo Ceruti, Bergamo 1982, reproduced, p. 32, fig. 29 (as by Domenico Fetti);
L. Vertova (ed.), Carlo Ceresa, un pittore bergamesco nel '600, exhibition catalogue, Bergamo 1983, p. 39, reproduced, p. 41 (where tentatively attributed to Carlo Ceresa);
L. Vertova, Carlo Ceresa, Bergamo 1984, p. 583, cat. no. 158, reproduced, p. 650, fig. 3 (as by Carlo Ceresa);
E.A. Safarik, Fetti, Milan 1990, p. 311, cat. no. A96 (under "dipiniti di incerta o erronea attribuzione").

The picture is relined. The painting is under a slightly opaque varnish which makes it difficult to read. Some smaller retouches are visible in the forehead, and a possible small repaired circular puncture is also possible in the middle left of the subjects drapery. A larger area of retouching may be also applied upper right, but again not with any certainty and may just be the manner in which the paint is applied. A light cleaning may benefit the painting but could also hang in its current state as much of the coloration and original impasto are well preserved. In a carved and gilded wooden frame.
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This handsome portrait has previously been associated with the circle of Domenico Fetti and Carlo Ceresa, though in handling and technique it appears closest to the rare Flemish artist Daniel van den Dyck. Van den Dyck worked in the studio of  Peter Verhaecht in 1631-2, though by September 1633 he had left Antwerp for Italy, where he would remain active for the remainder of his career.  His first stop in Italy was likely Bergamo, as he is recorded in that city in 1633. Later, in Venice, he married the daughter of Nicolas Régnier, and with his brother-in-law Pietro della Vecchia (1605-78) he executed wall decorations in the Palazzo Pesaro in Preganziol. He settled in Mantua by 1657, where he assumed the position of  court painter and keeper of the collection of Carlo Gonzaga II, 9th Duke of Mantua.

Van den Dyck's output was varied, as he was known to have executed flower-pieces, mythological and religious scenes, as well as portraits. His portrait style does reflect the character of his early Bergamesque contemporaries, namely Carlo Ceresa, though it also retains a Flemish painterly quality which stayed with him from his early training in Antwerp. This particular portrait may be compared with an example from his time in Bergamo, from circa 1633, a Portrait of Giambattista Bonometto (Eca, Bergamo; see R. Palluchini, La Pittura Veneziana Del Seicento, Milan 1981, vol. II, fig. 494). He would appear to have been quite actvive in Bergamo, as a number of portraits from his time there are in the Accademia Carrara (see for example, F. Rossi, Accademia Carrara: Catalogo dei Dipinti, Bergamo 1979, p. 286), many of which share a similar light touch and slightly loose handling. Federico Zeri appears to have been the first to attach the name Daniel van den Dyck to the portrait in 1959 (see Fondazione Zeri, scheda no. 57597, photo inv. no. 118759), though subsequent to this notation it was erroneously catalogued as both Ceresa and Fetti.