DYCK, Sir Anthony van, Featured Paintings in Detail

DYCK, Sir Anthony van

Featured Paintings in Detail

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Self-portrait with a Sunflowerc. 1633Oil on canvas, 60 x 73 cmPrivate collection

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Self-portrait with a Sunflower (detail)c. 1633Oil on canvas, 60 x 73 cmPrivate collection

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanSamson and Delilah1628-1630Oil on canvas 146 x 254 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanSamson and Delilah (detail)1628-1630Oil on canvas 146 x 254 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Crowning with Thorns1618-20Oil on canvas, 223 x 196 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Crowning with Thorns (detail)1618-20Oil on canvas, 223 x 196 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanCharles I in Three Positions 1635-1636Oil on canvas, 84.4 X 94.4 cmRoyal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle, London

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanCharles I in Three Positions (detail) 1635-1636Oil on canvas, 84.4 X 94.4 cmRoyal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle, London

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Double Portrait of the Painter Frans Snyders and his Wifec. 1621Oil on canvas, 83 x 110 cmStaatliche Museen, Kassel

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Double Portrait of the Painter Frans Snyders and his Wife (detail)c. 1621Oil on canvas, 83 x 110 cmStaatliche Museen, Kassel

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanEquestrian Portrait of Charles Icirca 1635 Oil on canvas, 365 x 289 cmNational Gallery, London

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanEquestrian Portrait of Charles I (detail)circa 1635 Oil on canvas, 365 x 289 cmNational Gallery, London

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanQueen Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson1633Oil on canvas, 219.1 x 134.8 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington DC

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanQueen Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson (detail)1633Oil on canvas, 219.1 x 134.8 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington DC

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Lord John and Lord Bernard Stuartc. 1638Oil on canvas, 238 x 146 cmNational Gallery, London

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Lord John and Lord Bernard Stuart (detail)c. 1638Oil on canvas, 238 x 146 cmNational Gallery, London

DYCK, Sir Anthony van The Lomellini Family1626-27Oil on canvas, 269 x 254 cmNational Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

DYCK, Sir Anthony van The Lomellini Family (detail)1626-27Oil on canvas, 269 x 254 cmNational Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

DYCK, Sir Anthony van , Featured Paintings in Detail

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DYCK, Sir Anthony van The Lomellini Family

The precocious and gifted van Dyck, with 15 years, set his own workshop in Flandes, Netherlands. During a trip to London, he gets to see the work by Titian for the first time: the impression that this caused to the artist was such that he decides to leave his country to move and learn from the great masters in Italy. It was the year 1621 and van

Dyck, with 22 years, begins to live in Genoa, at the north of the country.

The he devotes himself to portraits, which evidently provided him the means to live. He became famous among the rich and he is introduced to Giacomo Lomellini, the doge of Genoa. He commissions him a portrait of his family, which will be today’s painting.

It is curious that, in Italy, the doges had forbidden to pose for portraits. This way, they avoided any doge to make personal promotion. So, Giacomo, the father of the family, does not appear in the portrait. The ones who do are the sons of his first marriage, standing at the background; his second wife, sitting at the centre; and his two younger

children, at the right of the painting. The most interesting thing about this almost-velazquian portrait (Spaniel included), are the gaze of the members of the family, as they all point towards different directions: one of the oldest sons looks up front, while the other looks at the left; the mother looks at the spectator out of the corner of her eye and, at

last, the two children look confusedly to each other. The looks make this painting spontaneous, which is uncommon in portraits.

Sometime after, the artist will paint for Charles I from England and will change his name from Antoon to Anthony and will receive the honor to become a sir.

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Self-portrait with a Sunflower

The imagery of this portrait has been a matter of study and debate since the prototype (Collection of the Duke of Westminster) was executed in 1632/3. It is an exuberant piece in which the painter displays a valuable gold chain, perhaps that given to him by the King in 1632, when he was knighted and made painter to the King and Queen, and gestures to a sunflower. Whether this motif suggests the courtier's dependence in all things on the King - as the immense popularity of this image during the Civil War might

suggest - or his devotion to the cause of Art - as John Evelyn certainly believed some decades later - has never satisfactorily been resolved, and it may be that both possibilities were always intended.

Gold chains were traditional as gifts from sovereigns to painters, and when Van Dyck painted himself wearing one they were also a highly-prized element of fashionable costume. The painting's function is -if incidentally- documentary as much as it is allegorical.

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanSamson and Delilah

While fleeing from the Philistines, Samson fell in love with Delilah. This did not go unnoticed by his pursuers, and they promised Delilah a large amount of silver if she could find out where in his great strength lay. Upon her questioning, he lied to her three times and his capture failed, but Delilah did not give up, reminding him that their love vow did not permit secrets. Finally, he told her the truth and revealed the connection between his power and his hair. “And she made him sleep upon her knees […] and she called for a man, and she

caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. […] and his strength went from him. […] And he awoke […] and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza […] and he did grind in the prison house.” (Judges

16:19–21.)

Van Dyck used several artistic sources for the present painting: one detail of the scene – Samson’s desperately grasping the leg of the traitress – is borrowed from a work by Titian. With this adaptation van Dyck introduced a significant change of interpretation that became characteristic of his work, althoughit derives from Rubens with regard to its landscape format and

the diagonal depiction of Samson’s gestures.

Delilah’s dismay at betraying her lover is mingled with grief over her loss. She seems to regret her treacherous act, or at least is painfully moved by its dramatic consequence. Van Dyck “sentimentalises” the event, while Rubens had portrayed Delilah as an unscrupulous seductress and Samson as a captive, entirely occupied with fending off the soldiers.

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanCharles I in Three Positions

This triple portrait had an unusual function as a kind of design for sculpture. In 1636 Charles I dispatched the original of this painting by Sir Anthony van Dyck to the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini in Rome. It was to assist in the making of a marble bust. The three viewpoints were chosen to enable the sculptor to create a truly three-dimensional likeness. The

sculpture was intended as a papal present to Queen Henrietta Maria. After the bust was finished, the painting remained in the possession of Bernini and passed to his descendants. It was brought back to England in 1802 and entered the Royal Collection in 1822. The bust itself was a great success with the King and Queen. It was eventually destroyed in a fire at

Whitehall Palace, London, in 1698.

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanQueen Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson

In 1632 Anthony van Dyck was invited to England to work at the court of King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. In Van Dyck, the royal couple and the English aristocracy found an artist whose gifts perfectly matched their artistic sensitivities as well as their political needs and aspirations. Van Dyck infused his portraits of the king and queen, including this

depiction of Queen Henrietta Maria at age 24, with a tenderness and warmth of expression that fully convey the ideals of peace and harmony that underlay their philosophy of divine right to rule. Charles I not only commissioned Van Dyck to paint portraits for his own collection but also as gifts for loyal courtiers, ambassadors, and foreign rulers. This magnificent

portrait of the Queen is the type of painting that the king would traditionally present to a court favorite for political purposes.

Henrietta Maria, daughter of King Henri IV of France and sister of King Louis XIII, exerted a strong influence on court fashion and protocol, and introduced continental fashions and Italianate gardens to England. Van Dyck portrayed her dressed for the hunt in a brilliant blue satin riding costume with a delicate lace collar instead of the stiff and formal Elizabethan

ruff still widely in use. Whereas the queen's graceful pose and demure expression are at once regal and endearing, her stylish wide-brim feathered black hat and shimmering dress create a sense of vibrancy and vitality.

The queen's love of entertainment is symbolized by the presence of 14-year-old Sir Jeffrey Hudson and Pug the monkey, both royal favorites. Hudson, a perfectly proportioned dwarf whose services had been offered to the queen as a young boy, possessed a ready wit, and became one of the Queen's trusted advisors, even joining her in exile in France in the early

years of the English Civil Wars (1642–1651).

The orange tree behind Henrietta Maria, who was named after both her father, Henri IV of France, and her mother, Maria de' Medici, pays visual homage to her powerful Florentine ancestors. The Medici crest contains five gold balls, thought to represent oranges from the family's renowned citrus tree collection. A symbol of purity, chastity, and generosity, the

orange tree was also associated with the Virgin Mary, Henrietta Maria's patron saint.

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Double Portrait of the Painter Frans Snyders and his Wife

Anthony van Dyck was not only celebrated throughout Europe for his portraits of persons of rank, but was also highly regarded by his colleagues. Evidence of this are the portraits commissioned from him by artists, like this double portrait of Frans Snyders, a painter of animals and still-lifes, and his wife Margaretha de Vos.

The depiction of both spouses on a single panel makes it possible to portray a more intimate relationship, and this was the format that Anthony van Dyck tended to prefer, especially for his fellow artists. The joined hands, which originally stood for the promise of marriage, are here a sign of marital fidelity and mutual affection.

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Lord John and Lord Bernard Stuart

Early in 1639 the two Stuart brothers, cousins of King Charles I and younger sons of the third Duke of Lennox, set off on a three-year tour of the Continent. They must have posed for Van Dyck just before their departure. Since his arrival at the court, the artist had developed a new portrait type: the double portrait recording friendship, often, but

not necessarily, between relatives. The two brothers are shown as if poised on the point of departure, waiting perhaps for servants to bring up their carriage. Both were to die a few years later in the Civil War, and hindsight gives the image an added valedictory poignancy.

Van Dyck's compositional skill is surpassed only by his matchless ability to depict satin, lace and meltingly-soft kid leather. But these carefully described effects are somehow not local: the whole surface of the canvas is brought alive with a flickering touch. The costumes, so fashionably similar, are beautifully contrasted - receding warm

gold and brown on Lord John, cooler and advancing silver and blue on Lord Bernard - so that the two brothers, complementing each other in apparel, seem to form one shimmering, indivisible whole.

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanEquestrian Portrait of Charles I

This likeness of the king on horseback takes as its point of departure the archetypal image on the obverse of all the Great Seals of England: the sovereign as warrior. King Charles is wearing Greenwich-made armour and holding a commander's baton. A page carries his helmet.

In keeping with the imperial claim of the inscription (in Latin on the tablet tied to the tree in this portrait: CAROLUS REX MAGNAE BRITANIAE - Charles King of Great Britain), the pose and woodland setting echo Titian's equestrian portrait of the Emperor Charles V at Muhlberg.

Over his armour Charles wears a gold locket bearing the image of Saint George and the Dragon, the so-called Lesser George. He wore it constantly; it contained a portrait of his wife, and was with him the day he died. Here, however, it identifies him with the Order of the Garter of which Saint George was patron. As Garter Sovereign he is riding, like

Charles V, at the head of his chivalrous knights in defence of the faith.

In a profound sense the portrait is a visual assertion of Charles's claim to Divine Kingship. Albeit high above our heads - the horizon line ensures that our viewpoint is roughly at the level of his stirrup - his face is undistorted by foreshortening. Van Dyck's three-quarter view refines his features, and he bestrides his horse with a remote air of noble

contemplation.

This portrait probably dates from the later years of Van Dyck's English period, about 1637, not long before the outbreak of the Civil War which led to the king's execution in 1649.

DYCK, Sir Anthony van Crowning with Thorns

Various figures surround Christ and mock him. An armed soldier and an executioner place the Crown of Thorns on his head while another offers him a cane as his scepter. The scene is contemplated by two other figures through a window.

The contrast between the serenity of Christ and the villainy of his captors is vigorously conveyed in this early work by Van Dyck. The composition, as so often, is based on a prototype by Titian, of whom Van Dyck was a passionate admirer. But the influence of Rubens is also crucial, and the presentation is typically baroque: the viewer is forced into

the role of a close but helpless witness of the violence enacted. The effect is reinforced by Van Dyck's textures - for instance the exposed and brilliant chest of Christ against the gleaming precision of the axe above or the fluid musculature of the tormentor beside it.

This work was a gift from Van Dyck to Rubens. Following the latter’s death, it was acquired by Philip IV, who sent it to the monastery at El Escorial. From there, it entered the Museo del Prado in 1839.

DYCK, Sir Anthony van

The seventh of twelve children born to a wealthy silk merchant in Belgium, Anthony van Dyck began to paint at an early age. By the age of nineteen, he had become a teacher in Antwerp.

Soon afterward, he collaborated and trained with the famous Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens.In his early twenties, van Dyck went to Italy, where he studied the paintings of Titian

and Paolo Veronese and worked as a successful portrait painter for the Italian nobility. He became so well known that King Charles I of England summoned him to London to be his

exclusive court painter and eventually gave him a knighthood. Van Dyck's numerous portraits of Charles I and his family were greatly admired by his contemporaries. Realizing that

Charles's political and financial fortunes were in decline, van Dyck left England for Antwerp and Paris. A year later, after several unsuccessful projects abroad, he returned to London in ill

health and died shortly thereafter. Van Dyck is buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral, a distinction reserved only for illustrious British subjects.

DYCK, Sir Anthony van, Featured Paintings in Detail

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