Focus on Portrait of Lady Theresa Shirley and explain the abstract.
The Portrait of Lady Shirley is a 1622 painting by Sir Anthony van Dyck, a Flemish Baroque artist. It is a portrait of Teresa Sampsonia (1589–1668), a Circassian noblewoman of the Safavid Empire of Iran. She was the wife of Elizabethan English adventurer Robert Shirley, whom she accompanied on his travels and embassies across Europe in the name of the Safavid King (Shah) Abbas the Great (r. 1588–1629). Numerous sketches of the couple appear in Van Dyck's Italian Sketchbooks.
Teresa Sampsonia and embassies Anthony van Dyck Abbas the Great Circassian Shah Safavid Empire Robert Shirley Elizabethan Iran Flemish Baroque