Portrait of jeweler Giacomo Pucci with his son Alberto

Maria Brignole-Sale De Ferrari 1874 Genova - donazione

Van Dyck, Antoon

PR 50

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 125; Larghezza: 100

olio su tela

Cento opere di Van Dyck - Genova - 1955<br>Il tempo di Rubens. Da Anversa a Genova. Opere del seicento fiammingo. - Genova - 1987<br>Van Dyck a Genova. Grande pittura e collezionismo. - Genova - 1997

The painting has been part of the Brignole-Sale picture gallery since before 1684, the year in which the inventory of Gio. Francesco I's possessions was drawn up, in which it is cited as “Portrait of the jeweler Pucci and his son by Antonio Vandick.” Vandyckian autography has been questioned in the past by Barnes (2004), but it is entirely plausible that in the last years of his Genoese sojourn, the period in which the canvas under consideration was made, the artist employed collaborators to carry out the numerous commissions. The subject of the portrait corresponds to that “Giacomo Puchi” who participated in the “callega,” or public auction of the property of Costantino Pinelli, who died in August 1622, buying a number of gold and silver objects that can be linked to his trade as a jeweler. Next to him appears his son, identifiable as Alberto Pucci, who was born on July 9, 1623 and baptized in the basilica of Nostra Signora delle Vigne, the goldsmiths' quarter. (Santamaria in Genoa 2018, p. 204) Portrait of Giacomo Pucci seated, on his right his son Alberto.