Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Prince of Oneglia

Emmanuel Philibert (1588-1624): son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy; created Prince of Oneglia, 1620, and Viceroy of Sicily, 1621. The armour, decorated with emblems of the House of Savoy, survives in the Royal Armouries at Madrid. Painted during Van Dyck's stay in Palermo in the spring and summer of 1624; at this time there was an outbreak of plague, from which Emmanuel Philibert died on 3 August. The composition seems to be based on a lost portrait by Titian of the Emperor Charles V Barnes refers to an oil sketch of the head and a possible modello, both of unknown whereabouts.