The Prefect Raffaele Raggi

1624

Quarantine During the Plague in Palermo

In Palermo Van Dyck found himself in quarantine during the plague of 1624, one of the most severe in Sicily's history; there he created an important series of paintings of Saint Rosalia, the city's patroness, establishing her iconography for the Italian Baroque.

April 1624

Invitation to Palermo

In April 1624 Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Viceroy of Sicily, invited Van Dyck to Palermo to paint his portrait.

1625

Guest of Peiresc in Provence

In 1625 Van Dyck was briefly the guest of the humanist Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in Provence.

1626–1632

The Iconography Print Series

After returning to Antwerp, Van Dyck conceived a large series of engraved portraits of his contemporaries, the Iconography; he etched eighteen plates himself, executing the preparatory drawings mainly between 1626 and 1633. The first edition (80 plates) appeared in Antwerp in 1632.

1627

Return to Antwerp

In 1627 Van Dyck returned from Italy to Antwerp, where he remained for five years, creating portraits of the Flemish nobility and large altarpieces, and beginning to work in printmaking.