ANTOON VAN DYCK (workshop of/cerchia di) (Antwerp, 1599 - London, 1641) Portrait of Ferdinand of Austria, Cardinal Infante of Spain and Archbishop of Toledo Oil on canvas, 139.4X106 cm Provenance: Milan, private collection The painting depicts Ferdinand of Austria and is compared with the canvas painted by Antoon Van Dyck in 1634 now in the Prado Museum (inv. no. 1480, oil on canvas, 107x106 cm - cf. Barnes 2003, pp. 314, no. III.83), of which several replicas are known: autograph, attributable to his workshop or followers. Having said this, the version under examination presents a clear difference in that the author has here inserted a landscape piece with topographical connotations, thus suggesting a possible historical reference; not to mention the curious monogram-like detail on what would appear to be fortifications. Susan Barnes, in the catalogue raisonné devoted to the painter, reminds us that drafts of this portrait were present in the collections of Charles I, Cardinal Mazarin and the Earl of Clarendon, as was the custom in collections of the time. Consequently, the hypothesis that the version presented here was executed to commemorate an event of war or inherent to the construction of the forts depicted, implicating Ferdinand of Austria, and that in the absence or unavailability of the master, the execution was entrusted to a collaborator, becomes topical. Reference bibliography: S. Barnes, Van Dyck. A complete Catalogue of the paintings, New Haven 2003, ad vocem