(Antwerp 1599–1641 London)
Portrait of Adriaen Stalpaert, Abbot of Tongerlo (1563–1629), in a white habit,
dated upper left: A. tat 67. A 1629,
oil on canvas, 118 x 93.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany;
art market, Germany, 2016;
Private collection, United Kingdom

We are grateful to Christopher Brown for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original. He believes that some studio assistance might have been involved regarding the costume. Susan Barnes inspected the painting in 2017, and, noting that it was from Van Dyck’s second Antwerp period, wrote, ‘I agree that ‘studio’ is involved (curtain, landscape and attributes), but not without Van Dyck himself.’

This previously unpublished portrait by Van Dyck shows Adriaen Stalpaert (1563–1629), Abbot of Tongerlo, a Premonstratensian monastery to the east of Antwerp. Painted in 1629, it is a compelling example of Van Dyck’s portraiture in the years after his return from Italy, and combines his early Flemish style under Rubens with the techniques he learned in Italy by studying the works of Venetian artists like Titian.

Where Van Dyck’s handling of paint before he visited Italy was thick and sculptural, on his return he used the thinner, subtler layers of the Venetian colourists. This allowed him to not only work more quickly, but also give his sitters a degree of previously unseen naturalness. Such skills were especially useful for scholarly and religious figures, for whom the dignity of their position ruled out flamboyant poses, fashions or backgrounds. In these portraits, Van Dyck could create a sense of dignified reserve and calm power, even, as here, a glimpse into the pensiveness of their intellectual and spiritual minds. Comparable works include the portraits of Jesuit, Carolus Scribani (1561–1629) of circa 1629, conserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 508) and the portrait of Zeger van Hontsum (died 1643), painted in circa 1630, currently conserved in the Royal Collection Trust, England (inv. no. RCIN 405323).

Adriaen Stalpaert was Abbot of Tongerlo from 1608 until his death in October 1629. The Monastery at Tongerlo still exists today and is known amongst others through a print conserved in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. RP-P-AO-17-113-11). Stalpaert was an important figure in Flanders during the Counter-Reformation and his motto seen here underneath his coat of arms, ‘crux arida nutrit’ [the cross makes an infertile soil fertile], which guided his leadership at Tongerlo. The cross here is only painted rather than written. The Abbot improved education at the monastery, added important works to the monastery’s library, and most significantly of all, opened the College of Saint Norbert in Rome for the training of monks from Tongerlo. Saint Norbert was the founder of the Premonstratensian, or Norbertine order, which always wore white and which Van Dyck’s brother, Theodoor, joined.