Van Dyck’s portraits of nobility appear to represent their sitters as superior beings, ‘naturally’ entitled to the pre-eminence which they enjoyed. This entitlement, through lineage or genetic inheritance, was vigorously questioned during the sixteenth century. John Peacock, author of ‘The Look of Van Dyck’ and Visiting Fellow at Southampton University, takes a closer look at his portraits to argue that they may see him responding to these debates, rather than simply depicting a ‘naturally’ superior aristocratic class.
