It has been said that the works of Titian influenced his youthful mind the most.

Van Dyck spent three years in Genoa, where he was employed by those foremost in its life to paint their portraits.

Many of these superb canvases have been dispersed to enrich the galleries of both hemispheres, public and private; but the proud, handsome semblances of some of his sitters, dressed in rich velvet, pearls, and lace, look down upon us still from the bare walls of their once magnificent palaces, with that 'grand air' for which the eye and the brush of Van Dyck have long remained unrivalled.
When he returned to Flanders from Italy, he had attained a style of painting entirely his own and very different from that of his great master, Rubens.

The William II of Orange picture is an excellent example of Van Dyck's work.

The child is a prince: we know it as plainly as if Van Dyck had spoken the word before unveiling his canvas.