Learn About Anthony van Dyck in Art History, View His Art and Famous Paintings

"Thomas Killigrew and William, Lord Crofts” van Dyck, 1638


Anthony van Dyck, 1599-1641, another of the Netherlands’s famous artists in art history, painted one of his famous paintings "Rinaldo and Armida", in 1629. The theme of the picture is taken from a late Italian Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso and his poem "Jerusalem Delivered", 1575. Tasso's poem is filled with heroic warriors, heroines, enchantresses and dreadful dangers that took place during the first crusade.

Anthony van Dyck's painting is about a mythological sorceress who fell in love with a Christian soldier she was originally intending to kill. The artwork was rendered for the English Monarchy and said to represent the amorous feelings of Charles I, a Protestant, who married the Catholic sister of his rival, the King of France.

Van Dyck saw similarities in Tasso's poem that reflected the conception of the English monarchy. Strange as it may seem, Charles I was beheaded twenty years later in a civil war.

Another of van Dyck's artistic paintings is the "Portrait of Charles I Hunting", painted in 1635.
Charles I is off center but remains the focal point of the artwork through the heavier highlighting of his clothing. The horse and the attendants are all in the shadows automatically causing the viewers eye to be drawn to the highlighted King.

Anthony van Dyck's famous paintings, aristocratic poses influenced English portraiture painting through the late 1700's and his ability to bring out the Sitter's character brought him many commissions throughout the rest of his art career.

Anthony van Dyck had so many art commissions that he couldn't keep up with them. Van Dyck had many assistants in his studio to keep pace with his portrait painting. The assistants would paint in the clothing for the portrait looking at clothed manikins as models.

Later van Dyck would complete the portrait painting in the face. Some of the portraits were very close in representation to fashion-dummies of earlier periods setting a poor precedent in portrait painting. Other famous artists and their famous paintings in Baroque period of art history are Peter Paul Rubens, “Saint George and the Dragon”, and Frans Hals, “Pieter van der Broecke”.

To view the gallery of Anthony van Dyck paintings click here




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