Sir Endymion Porter and Anthony van Dyck

A white sleeve catches the light; a dark shoulder turns towards us. In Sir Endymion Porter and Anthony van Dyck , the two men share a small oval space, yet each has a different way of occupying it. Porter faces out with an elbow thrust sideways. Van Dyck turns his head back over his shoulder, drawing our attention from his companion's bright clothes to his own face. The painting makes their relationship visible through these adjustments of light, posture and distance.

Two presences within an oval

The curve of the picture brings the figures close to its edges. Porter's projecting elbow approaches the left boundary, while Van Dyck's dark back fills much of the right. There is little empty space beside either man. Their heads sit below the upper curve, with a narrow interval between them that allows each face its own silhouette.

The arrangement has an easy asymmetry. Porter spreads across the picture, his body broad and nearly frontal. Van Dyck's body leads away from us, with his head turned in the opposite direction. Following that turn makes looking feel like a small movement: first along the shoulder, then up to the face. Porter is immediately available to the eye; Van Dyck has to turn to meet it.

Their heads do not form a level pair. Porter's sits slightly higher and farther left, while the artist's is brought towards the centre. The difference avoids the stiffness of two faces lined up for comparison. Neither man looks directly at the other. Their connection has to be found elsewhere in the image.

Behind Porter, a strip of cloudy sky opens above a low, dark landscape. Behind Van Dyck, brown drapery closes the space. The change from an open distance to hanging fabric helps separate the two silhouettes without erecting a hard partition between them. The dark fold rising between their heads also makes a useful pause between the faces.

The hands and the stone

Brown reads the rock touched by both men as an image of enduring friendship, and suggests that the oval may strengthen the sense of intimacy. ^[1]

The stone gives the lower part of the composition a shared centre. Porter's hanging fingers are easy to locate because his pale cuff and sleeve lead down towards them. Van Dyck's hand is less immediately conspicuous among the browns at the lower right. Looking for it slows the eye after the bright expanse of Porter's dress.

That difference matters to the experience of the painting. At first the men seem divided by their clothes. Lower down, their gestures bring them into the same small area. They do not need a handshake or an embrace to establish contact within the composition: the solid surface receives both hands.

The rock also introduces a rough, irregular shape beneath the carefully dressed figures. Its warm colour belongs with the background and with the shadowed parts of the hands. Around it, skin, lace and dark fabric meet without becoming a jumble. The eye can follow each material, then return to the faces above.

What do the white and black clothes mean?

The Prado's current tour interprets Porter's brilliant white satin and the artist's black dress through their difference in social rank. ^[2] Brown discusses that older reading, associated with Arthur K. Wheelock Jr, but favours Emilie Gordenker's account of black as an expression of intellectual distinction and Van Dyck's chosen artistic identity. Her comparisons include his Iconography self-portrait. ^[1]

The colour contrast is unmistakable. Porter's costume occupies the broadest illuminated area, broken into folds, rows of small buttons and sharp changes from cream to grey. Bright ridges run across the sleeves; softer shadows gather around the waist. The dress allows us to read the torso in detail before we study the face.

Van Dyck's black works differently. Some of its folds disappear into one another, while others become visible as broad, muted highlights. The shoulder has weight and volume, even where its outline merges with the background. Above it, the face is particularly distinct. The small white shape at the neck has much less area than Porter's collar, but it gives the head a clear point of departure from the dark clothing.

These effects make the competing readings interesting to test by looking. Porter commands more light and more patterned detail. Van Dyck's turn gives him a livelier change of direction, and the dark surrounding his face makes that face easy to find. The balance shifts as the eye moves. A first impression based on the largest bright area can change when we attend to the heads.

Black is therefore an active part of the composition. It gathers the right side into a broad shape, giving the white satin something firm to press against. The two costumes help distinguish the sitters, while their interlocking outlines keep the picture together.

Porter as a connection to the court

Brown records a payment to Van Dyck in 1620 while Porter served Buckingham, and a 1629 commission probably identifiable with the Baltimore Rinaldo and Armida . He treats Porter's part in obtaining Van Dyck's 1632 royal appointment as a supposition. ^[1] The Prado tour describes Porter as an art agent and protector of the painter. ^[2]

This gives the companionship a practical setting within the world of Van Dyck's English career . The painter has placed himself beside someone involved in obtaining and supporting art. In the image, however, there is no transaction to watch. No document passes between the men, and no painting appears as an object of exchange. Their shared presence is the subject.

That choice gives the portrait a particular interest. Van Dyck shows the person who paints alongside a person who helps art circulate. Both face the viewer, and both belong to the same enclosed space. The image lets us consider the relationship without pretending to show a particular meeting or agreement.

Dating and a possible gift

The dating remains unsettled: the current Prado tour gives about 1633, while Brown proposes spring 1635. ^{[1] [2]} Brown also considers a gift to Porter probable; a commission is unproven. ^[1]

The possibility of a gift suits the picture's close arrangement, though the arrangement cannot establish its original purpose. The oval holds the two men together with unusual economy. A projecting elbow, a turned shoulder and two hands on stone provide enough movement to make a relationship felt, while leaving its terms open to interpretation.