Saventhem, whose portrait Van Dyck painted with that of his wife, Maria de Camudio (the latter is in the Aremberg Gallery at Brussels). Another noteworthy instance is the well-known ‘Raising of the Brazen Serpent,’ in the Prado Gallery at Madrid, to which the signature of Rubens has been affixed, and of which a fine variant belongs to Sir Frederick Cook, bart. (at Richmond); both are the work of Van Dyck. Probably, like Rubens, Van Dyck kept a school of pupils, and superintended the work after the fashion of his master. Some of Van Dyck's finest portraits were executed at this time, notably the equestrian portraits of the Marquis d'Aytona (in the Louvre) and the Duc d'Aremberg (at Holkham). His portraits of this period are less rich and glowing than those of his Genoese period, but they have the dignity of pose, the courtliness of manner, the sober colouring, and exquisite rendering of the tints, especially the hands and the drapery, which are usually associated with the name of Van Dyck. If any fault is to be found with them, it might be said that he has invested the rather ordinary burghers and artists of his acquaintance with all the airs and attributes of the oldest nobility or the heroes of romance. Van Dyck no doubt profited greatly by the absence of Rubens on his diplomatic missions to Spain and England. On 18 May 1628 the Earl of Carlisle visited Van Dyck in his house at Antwerp, and met Rubens there.
One of the most important sitters to Van Dyck, besides the Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, was the exiled queen mother of France, Marie de Médicis, who, while in Antwerp, visited Van Dyck in his own house and was painted by him, as was her son Gaston, duc d'Orléans (full-length, in the collection of the Earl of Radnor). Good examples of Van Dyck's portrait-painting at this period to be found in English collections are Philippe le Roy and his wife (Hertford House), Cornelis van der Geest (National Gallery), the Burgomaster Triest (Earl Brownlow at Ashridge), the organist Liberti (Knole, Euston, and Munich), the Abbé Scaglia, a noted political intriguer (Dorchester House), and Frans Snyders, the painter (Castle Howard). On the continent attention may be drawn to the portraits of Snyders and his wife (Hermitage, St. Petersburg, and Cassel), the Prince of Pfalz-Neuburg and the Duke and Duchess of Croy (full-lengths, at Munich), Maria Luisa de Tassis (Liechtenstein collection, Vienna), Anna Wake (The Hague), and the president Richardot and his son (Louvre, Paris).
During this period also Van Dyck, besides employing the fine engravers of the Rubens school, tried his own hand at etching, with the result of producing a series of about twenty-two etchings, mostly portraits, including one of himself, which are ranked by all connoisseurs among the greatest treasures of the painter-etcher's art, the supreme gift of portraiture being linked with the most exquisite sense of the scope of that particular art. It would appear that during his voyage in Italy Van Dyck commenced a series of portrait studies in grisaille of his friends, especially artists, and the various eminent personages with whom from time to time he was brought into contact. He continued to make these studies at Antwerp and elsewhere, whenever the opportunity presented itself. When they amounted to a considerable number, Van Dyck seems to have thought of publishing them in engraving, and to have intended commencing the engravings himself by etching the heads before handing them over to the engravers for completion. The plates on which he etched these heads do not seem to have left his possession during his lifetime. Some of the portrait studies were, however, engraved and published by an Antwerp print-dealer, Martin van der Enden. After Van Dyck's death the whole collection seems to have passed to another print-dealer, Gilles Hendricx of Antwerp, who had Van Dyck's etchings completed as engravings, and published the whole series, rather over a hundred plates, in 1641 under the title of ‘Icones Principum, Virorum Doctorum, Pictorum, Chalcographorum, Statuariorum, nec non Amatorum pictoriæ artis numero centum ab Antonio Van Dyck pictore ad vivum expressæ ejusque sumptibus æri incisæ.’ From this title it is evident that this series, which is known as the ‘Centum Icones’ or ‘Iconographiæ’ of Van Dyck, was actually projected by him. The original studies in grisaille are dispersed among the collections of Europe, but no fewer than thirty-seven are in that of the Duke of Buccleuch at Montague House, Whitehall.
Meanwhile overtures were not wanting to induce Van Dyck to come back to England. Charles I had seen and acquired the portrait of Nicholas Lanier, brought home by that agent from Genoa. Arundel and Kenelm Digby added their attempts to persuade. It is possible that Van Dyck may have paid a short visit to England, and stayed at the house of his friend, George Geldorp [q. v.] in Drury Lane, but there is no proof of this other than the tradition of his having been Geldorp's guest. In 1629 Endymion Porter
