A pale-skinned woman sits on a red velvet chair, which is almost entirely hidden by her voluminous, dark emerald-green and gold gown, in this vertical portrait painting. The woman sits in the center of a shadowed, cavernous space, and her body and dress nearly fill the composition. Her body is turned slightly to our right, and she looks at us from the corners of her large, dark eyes. She has a round face, slightly flushed cheeks, and her full, rose-pink lips are closed. Her tawny-brown hair is pulled back under a headband that glints silver over her right ear, to our left. A goldenrod-yellow flower is tucked into her hair near that spot. Her tall, gossamer lace ruff collar is pleated into figure-eights, and it spans the width of her shoulders. Dots of white paint suggest detailing along the pleated edges. The fabric of her gown is so dark green that it appears black in some places, and it is decorated with bands of gold embroidery down the front of the bodice and full skirt, and around the bottom hem. A cape-like garment splits over long, puffy sleeves, which end with pleated, fog-gray fabric at the wrist. The cape and sleeves are densely ornamented with vegetal designs in glimmering gold.

   She rests her left elbow, on our right, on the arm of her chair so her hand rests palm up, near her waist. The other hand hangs off the end of the other arm of the chair, which is covered by her sleeve. A closed, black and gold fan hangs on a gold chain near that hand. Her skirt brushes the carpet, which is patterned with floral designs in ruby red, mustard yellow, and charcoal gray. The only parts of the chair that we see are a gold orb finial over her right shoulder, to our left, and the velvet-covered arm of the chair on the opposite side. Above the woman to our right hangs the edge of a muted gold curtain. The woman is lit from behind us, and the space around her is largely swallowed in shadow. Another curtain is lifted in the room behind her. Through it, we look out onto a landscape with a stone tower and buildings under a sky swirled with parchment brown, steel gray, and a sweep of brick red.

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   In this majestic full-length portrait, Marchesa Balbi sits frontally in a high-backed chair, her elegant, deep-green dress trimmed with gold brocade billowing around her. She gazes directly out at the viewer with disarming warmth, given the extraordinary sumptuousness of her costume. With one hand resting on her lap and the other dangling a fan against her dress, she seems relaxed and natural, and the portrait feels unexpectedly personal despite its large scale and imposing grandeur.

   Anthony van Dyck had a remarkable ability to understand his patrons' personalities and to reflect them in his portraiture. Although the precise identity of this young and attractive member of the Balbi family is not known, the Balbis were prominent members of the Genoese aristocracy. They commissioned a number of portraits from Van Dyck in the mid-1620s. His relationship with the Balbi family may even have preceded his trip to Italy, as a branch of the family lived in his hometown of Antwerp.

   The grand, elegant style of this painting owes much to Van Dyck's one-time mentor Peter Paul Rubens, who had traveled to Genoa in the first decades of the 17th century and executed a number of imposing portraits, such as Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria (also in the Gallery's collection). Van Dyck would have seen these portraits after he arrived in Genoa in 1621. Although Van Dyck was inspired by Rubens's portraits, he brought an entirely different expressive character to his own work. In this example, he has softened the architectural qualities of the Marchesa's costume and introduced elements of informality in her pose and in the undulating ripple in the oriental carpet beneath the her feet, further enhancing the portrait's engaging tenderness and candor.

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