Portrait of Marcello Durazzo 

Anthony van Dyck painted this portrait of Marcello Durazzo in oil on canvas, likely during his time in Genoa in the 1620s. Genoa was then a republic ruled by a small number of powerful families. These families invested heavily in art as a way of displaying their wealth and status. Van Dyck presents Durazzo as a powerful figure through visual codes, a dark cloak, a restrained color palette, and his confident stance next to an architectural column. This all emphasizes Durazzo's noble status. The pose also communicates sprezzatura, an affectation of nonchalance that was particularly valued in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Paintings like this served a crucial public role at the time. Placed in family palaces, they broadcasted the values of the Genoese ruling class. As historians, we can look into family archives, social histories, and art market records to better understand how art supported the social structures of its time.