Anthony van Dyck: Difference between revisions
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22 March 1599 (Antwerp) - 9 December 1641 (London). Flemish painter and draughtsman who was also active in Italy and England. Van Dyck was considered the leading Flemish painter after [[Peter Paul Rubens]] in the first half of the 17th century. | |||
He was the seventh child of Franchois van Dyck, a successful merchant of cloth and silk. Since his grandfather had been a painter and there being artists in his mother’s family, he became the apprentice of one of Antwerp’s leading artists at the age of ten. His teacher, Hendrik van Balen was also a neighbour of Jan Brueghel the elder. | He was the seventh child of Franchois van Dyck, a successful merchant of cloth and silk. Since his grandfather had been a painter and there being artists in his mother’s family, he became the apprentice of one of Antwerp’s leading artists at the age of ten. His teacher, Hendrik van Balen was also a neighbour of Jan Brueghel the elder. | ||
Revision as of 14:16, 26 April 2013
22 March 1599 (Antwerp) - 9 December 1641 (London). Flemish painter and draughtsman who was also active in Italy and England. Van Dyck was considered the leading Flemish painter after Peter Paul Rubens in the first half of the 17th century.
He was the seventh child of Franchois van Dyck, a successful merchant of cloth and silk. Since his grandfather had been a painter and there being artists in his mother’s family, he became the apprentice of one of Antwerp’s leading artists at the age of ten. His teacher, Hendrik van Balen was also a neighbour of Jan Brueghel the elder. In 1618, van Dyck became master craftsman; at that time he had already worked with his friend Jan Brueghel the younger in a studio of his own for two years (since his father’s business was a failure, he had to make a living of his own). His early works were mainly religious paintings, for instance of apostles (inspired by similar works of Rubens). However, while Rubens studied ancient sculptures and developed a spatial idea of his figures in his pictures, van Dyck was more interested in the structures and textures of surfaces.
As his fame became known also to foreign visitors of Antwerp, Thomas Howard, the Earl of Arundel as well as the Duke of Buckingham (both the most important contemporary English art collectors) were interested in van Dyck. Van Dyck's stay in London brought a change in his style which is contributed to his studying of Italian Renaissance masterworks that he could not find in Antwerp. Especially Titian was very important, as van Dyck was influenced by his depiction of texture and light, while still keeping Rubens’ style of composition. His first stay in London lasted only eight months. Afterwards, he traveled to Genoa, Palermo and Rome and back to Antwerp. In 1632, van Dyck moved to London where Charles I found him to be the “heir” of Titian and wanted to support him. He became “principalle paynter in ordinary to their Majesties” [source of this quote??], getting paid an annual salary of 200 pounds and was knighted in the same year. His portraits of the monarch became the most famous depiction of Charles I and his wife Henrietta Maria who were often shown much idealised. For example, Charles on horseback resembles the riding statue of emperor Marcus Aurelius and Titian’s painting of Charles V.
His lasting influence on British artists can be measured in Thomas Gainsborough's last words: “We are all going to heaven and Van Dyck is of the company” [source??].
Bibliography:
Brown, Christopher, ed. Van Dyck. 1599-1641. München: Hirmer Verlag, 1999.
Turner, Jane, ed. The Dictionary of Art. New York: Grove’s Dictionaries Inc., 1996.