A canon's portrait belongs to the same restrained tradition of clerical portraiture that produced Van Dyck's early, admired likeness of Cardinal Bentivoglio in Rome, a picture praised for its deep characterisation of a churchman rather than for any display of his office^[1]. Van Dyck's clerical sitters are typically shown in plain black, without the silk, lace and armour that mark his aristocratic portraits, their authority carried instead through expression and gaze. The Tassis family, from which this canon likely took his name, was closely associated with the postal service that connected the courts of Europe under Habsburg rule, a family of considerable standing in the southern Netherlands though not aristocratic in the traditional sense. Van Dyck moved in the same official and religious circles this family occupied throughout his years working in Antwerp and Brussels.