Anthony van Dyck, 'The Abbot Scaglia adoring the Virgin and Child', 1634-5
About the work
Overview
Abbot Scaglia (1592–1641), cleric, diplomat, spy and one of Van Dyck’s most important patrons, commissioned this painting while suffering from ill health and in a reflective state of mind. It was meant for the church of the Recollect order of Augustinians in Antwerp; within a few years Scaglia would withdraw from public life and retire to their monastery.
The picture shows the Abbot kneeling before the Virgin and Child and receiving a blessing from the infant Christ, who seems to have paused momentarily from squirming playfully in his mother’s lap. The informality of Christ and the joyous colours contrast with the seriousness of Scaglia, intent on the salvation of his soul, and the calm gravity of the Virgin. Her face, double chin and all, appears to be a portrait, the most likely candidate being Princess Henrietta of Lorraine Phalsbourg, to whom Scaglia bequeathed the picture. Van Dyck has made a scene where the human and the divine interact with touching naturalness.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Abbot Scaglia adoring the Virgin and Child
- Artist
- Anthony van Dyck
- Artist dates
- 1599 - 1641
- Date made
- 1634-5
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 106.7 × 120 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Anthony de Rothschild in memory of Louisa, Lady de Rothschild, and Constance, Lady Battersea, 1937
- Inventory number
- NG4889
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 20th-century Replica Frame
Provenance
Madame la Douairière Peytierde Merchten (†) sale, Antwerp, 3 August 1791 (2) sold for 3000 glds. John Knight (of Portland Place) sale, Phillips, 24 March, 1819 (80) bt. in; John Knight sale, Phillips, 17 March, 1821 (35) bt. in; John Knight sale, Phillips, 24 May, 1839 (16). Coll. Edmund Higginson, Saltmarsh Castle, Herefordshire, by 1841; Edmund Higginson sale, Christie’s, 6 June (= 3rd day), 1846 (215) bt. by Rothschild (= Anthony de Rothschild (1810–1876, Baronet from 1847)) for 410 gns.; exh., R.A. 1870 (30); exh. R.A. 1900 (24) lent by his widow, Lady de Rothschild († 1910); inherited by his daughter Constance, Lady Battersea († 1931); sold to Agnew’s; from whom bought by Anthony de Rothschild, and presented in memory of Louisa, Lady de Rothschild, and Constance, Lady Battersea, 1937.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Gregory Martin, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Flemish School: circa 1600–circa 1900’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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2008Van Dyck PortraitsMusée Jacquemart-André8 October 2008 - 25 January 2009
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2010Nicholaas Rockox (1560-1640): A Lasting LegacyThe Snijders & Rockox Huis14 December 2010 - 27 March 2011
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2016Van Dyck: The Anatomy of PortraitureThe Frick Collection1 March 2016 - 5 June 2016
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2018Van Dyck, Court PainterMusei Reali di Torino - Galleria Sabauda16 November 2018 - 17 March 2019
Bibliography
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1791Catalogue de tableaux précieux provenans du cabinet de feue Madame la douairière Peytier de Merchten, Antwerp, 3 August 1791
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1830
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
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1841H. Artaria, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Gallery of Pictures Collected by Edmund Higginson, London 1841
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1854G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
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1882J. Guiffrey, Antoine van Dyck: Sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris 1882
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1899C. Phillips, 'Van Dyck's Works at the Academy', Daily Telegraph, II, 1899
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1900L.H. Cust, Anthony van Dyck: An Historical Study of his Life and Works, London 1900
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1900'The Royal Academy Winter Exhibition (Second Notice)', The Athenaeum, 1900
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1900H.F. Cook, 'Correspondance d'Angleterre: L'exposition van Dyck à Londres', Gazette des beaux-arts, XXIII, 1900
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1900M.J. Friedländer, 'Die V. Dyck: Ausstellung in London, 31: Winter-Exhibition der Academy', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XXIII, 1900, pp. 168-71
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1900E. Law, 'The van Dyck Exhibition at the Royal Academy, II', Magazine of Art, XXIV, 1900, pp. 200‑3
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1900C. Phillips, 'Van Dyck at Burlington House', Art Journal, 1900
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1909E. Schaeffer, Van Dyck: Des Meisters Gemälde, Stuttgart 1909
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1931G. Glück, Van Dyck, des Meisters Gemälde, Stuttgart 1931
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1937D. Schlugleit, 'L'Abbé de Scaglia, Jordaens et "L'Histoire de Psyché" de Greenwich House (1639-1642)', Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art, VII, 1937, pp. 139-66
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1938National Gallery, National Gallery and Tate Gallery Directors' Reports, 1937, London 1938
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1938H.G. Fell, 'Some Topics of the Moment. A van Dyck for the National Gallery', The Connoisseur, CI, 1938
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1950L. van Puyvelde, Van Dyck, Brussels 1950
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1962F. Baudouin, Rubens Diplomate: Exposition organisée par le Service de recherches historiques et folkloriques de la province de Brabant avec la collaboration de la ville d'Anvers, 1er juillet - 15 septembre 1962 [...], Antwerp 1962
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1962H. Vey, Die Zeichnungen Anton van Dycks, Brussels 1962
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1965G. Adriani, Anton van Dyck: Italienisches Skizzenbuch, Vienna 1965
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1970G. Martin, The Flemish School, circa 1600-circa 1900, London 1970
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1972C. von Hasselt, Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth Century from the Collection of Frits Lugt, Institut Néerlandais, Paris (exh. cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, 9 February - 26 March 1972; Institut Néerlandais, 14 April - 28 May 1972; Kunstmuseum, 8 June - 23 July 1972; Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, 30 September - 8 November 1972), London 1972
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1974C. Brown, The Abbé Scaglia Adoring the Virgin and Child by Anthony van Dyck, London 1974
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1974J.B. Knipping, Iconography of the Counter Reformation in the Netherlands. Heaven on Earth, Leiden 1974
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1975G. Martin, 'The Abbot Scaglia', The Burlington Magazine, CXVII/862, 1975, p. 52
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1982O. Millar, Van Dyck in England, London 1982-1983
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1982C. Brown, Van Dyck, Oxford 1982
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1986Martin, Gregory, National Gallery Catalogues: The Flemish School, circa 1600 - circa 1900, London 1986
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1987C. Brown, The National Gallery Schools of Painting: Flemish Paintings, London 1987
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1987C. Brown, 'Van Dyck and Titian', in G. Cavalli-Björkman (ed.), Bacchanals by Titian and Rubens, Stockholm 1987
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1988E. Larsen, The Paintings of Anthony van Dyck, Freren 1988
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1988F.B. Polleross, Das sakrale Identifikationsporträt: Ein höfischer Bildtypus vom 13. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, Worms 1988
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1990C. Brown, 'Van Dyck's Pembroke Family Portrait: An Inquiry into its Italian Sources', in A.K. Wheelock et al., Anthony Van Dyck, Washington 1990, pp. 37-44
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1991C. Brown, Van Dyck Drawings (exh. cat. Pierpont Morgan, 15 February - 21 April 1991; Kimbell Art Museum, 1 June - 11 August 1991), New York 1991
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1992A. Cifani and F. Monetti, 'New light on the Abbé Scaglia and Van Dyck', Burlington Magazine, CXXXIV/1073, August 1992, pp. 506-14
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1993P. Sutton et al., The Age of Rubens (exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, 22 September 1993 - 2 January 1994), Boston 1993
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1999A. Roy, 'The National Gallery van Dycks: Technique and Development', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XX, 1999, pp. 50‑83
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1999R. White, 'Van Dyck's Paint Medium', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XX, 1999, pp. 84-8
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2002T. Osborne, Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy: Political Culture and the Thirty Years War, Cambridge 2002
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2004H. Vey et al., Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven 2004
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2007T. Osborne, 'Van Dyck, Alessandro Scaglia and Diplomacy in the Early Seventeenth Century', The Seventeenth Century, XXII/1, 2007, pp. 24-41
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2008A. Merle du Bourg, Antoon van Dyck: Portraits (exh. cat., Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris), Brussels 2008
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2011T. Osborne, 'A New Theory on the Identification of the "Portland Portrait" as Abbé Scaglia', in B. Grosvenor (ed.), Finding Van Dyck: Newly Discovered and Rarely Seen Works by Van Dyck and His Followers, London 2011, pp. 52-9
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2016S. Alsteens and A. Eaker, Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture, New Haven and London 2016
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2016T. Osborne, 'Anthony van Dyck: A Painter-Diplomat of the Thirty Years' War?', in L. Duerloo and R. Malcolm Smuts (eds), The Age of Rubens: Diplomacy, Dynastic Politics and the Visual Arts in Early Seventeenth-Century Europe, Turnhout 2016, pp. 181-96
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2018M.G. Bernardini and A.M. Bava, Van Dyck: Pittore di Corte, Rome 2018-2019
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2021C. White, Anthony van Dyck & the Art of Portraiture, London 2021
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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