Free Essays on Anthony Van Dyck

Anthony Van Dyck’s â€Å"Andromeda Chained to the Rock† Anthony Van Dyck is a brilliant and tremendously influential portrait painter who was also a religious and narrative artist, a consummate draughtsman and etcher and a charming occasional landscape watercolorist. 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. 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. In 1621 Anthony van Dyck left Antwerp and his position as chief assistant to Peter Paul Rubens. He spent the next six years in Italy, conceiving a obsessive admiration for Titian and developing a mature painting style. He lived in England from 1632 to his death, becoming a fashionable portrait artist and court painter to King Charles I. The piece that really stands out of all Van Dyck’s work is Andromeda Chained to the Rock. Van Dyck's cultural environment and pictorial style come forward in this painting of Andromeda, the beautiful Ethiopian princess whose sacrifice was required to calm a sea monster ravaging the kingdom. Van Dyck depicts her chained in a rocky cave awaiting her fate, while the monster approaches through the waves. Perseus, her rescuer, moves quickly along through the skies on Pegasus. Andromeda stands firmly, full-length, and life-sized, looking up in anguish. Andromeda has a solid physical presence, which may also come from the fact that Van Dyck used his mistress Margaret Lemon for the model of this painting. The woman’s lively eyes, detailed facial features, and fine modeling of flesh tones show the Van Dyck’s concern for texture and pattern. His brush strokes vary to soften the background and... Free Essays on Anthony Van Dyck Free Essays on Anthony Van Dyck Anthony Van Dyck’s â€Å"Andromeda Chained to the Rock† Anthony Van Dyck is a brilliant and tremendously influential portrait painter who was also a religious and narrative artist, a consummate draughtsman and etcher and a charming occasional landscape watercolorist. 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. 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. In 1621 Anthony van Dyck left Antwerp and his position as chief assistant to Peter Paul Rubens. He spent the next six years in Italy, conceiving a obsessive admiration for Titian and developing a mature painting style. He lived in England from 1632 to his death, becoming a fashionable portrait artist and court painter to King Charles I. The piece that really stands out of all Van Dyck’s work is Andromeda Chained to the Rock. Van Dyck's cultural environment and pictorial style come forward in this painting of Andromeda, the beautiful Ethiopian princess whose sacrifice was required to calm a sea monster ravaging the kingdom. Van Dyck depicts her chained in a rocky cave awaiting her fate, while the monster approaches through the waves. Perseus, her rescuer, moves quickly along through the skies on Pegasus. Andromeda stands firmly, full-length, and life-sized, looking up in anguish. Andromeda has a solid physical presence, which may also come from the fact that Van Dyck used his mistress Margaret Lemon for the model of this painting. The woman’s lively eyes, detailed facial features, and fine modeling of flesh tones show the Van Dyck’s concern for texture and pattern. His brush strokes vary to soften the background and...