Van Dyck

Sir Anthony (Anton) van Dyck (22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of royalty, painted with a preternatural virtuosity which set the standard for elegance in the genre. He excelled also in the painting of biblical and mythological subjects, displayed outstanding facility as a draftsman, and was a master of etching.

From the Beginning Van Dyck painted mythological and religious subjects.
While few portrait drawings in chalk on grey paper survive - perhaps they were usually destroyed in the process of transferring their information to the canvas - large numbers of drawings connected with history - painting projects do.
As Van Dyck's thinking evolved, there remained a constant; the formal idea that he surely owed to Rubens in the first instance. It was the diagonal, a recurrent device in Ruben's work, lending disequilibrium to composition and drama to narrative. Anyone could see its force in the Cathedral in Antwerp, in the Raising of the Cross and the Deposition.

MMaxi