Anthony van Dyck, Flemish
Wouldn’t You Know It, the Painter Showed Up Just As Glenn Was Taking His Cookies Out of the Oven, 1627
Oil on canvas
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/// Peeter Stevens knew wealthy men ruled.
In his Portrait, he can’t be bejeweled.
“Antwerp men dress alike.
Make me look rich, van Dyck.”
Thus, this leather glove, fringed and hand-tooled.
/// That large glove draws the eye. It’s a sign
that Peet owns things expensive and fine.
A rich cloth merchant’s perk,
(not one worn for hard work),
it’s a gauntlet of noble design.
/// Later on, Peet makes Anna his bride.
Wants HER portrait to show off his pride.
The convention was trite:
Men on left— women right,
but she’s (famously) on the “wrong” side.
Because Peeter’s portrait emphasized his left glove, he was painted facing to the viewer’s left. If Anna had been painted and displayed in the traditional position for wives, they wouldn’t appear to be facing one another. The solution for van Dyck was to have Anna looking to the viewer’s right, and then to hang her portrait to the left of Peeter’s, defying convention by being displayed “before” her husband’s painting. A subtle, but clear indication of the ingrained subordination of women that to us today seems ludicrous.