Guide to the Picture Gallery of the Imperial Hermitage Benois Alexander Nikolaevich

Dijk, Anthony van

Dijk, Anthony van

However, long before it became general, the metamorphosis of the very spirit of Flemish painting first appeared in the best of the best students of Rubens, in Anthony van Dyck (1599 - 1641). Rubens was still in full splendor and no one was thinking about new trends when van Dyck, until then his obedient student, left for Italy and began to paint portraits there, in Genoa, in which a feature that was hitherto unknown to Flanders unexpectedly appeared: the most genuine "grandezza" - in connection with some kind of gentle melancholy, which came to the taste of aristocrats who wanted to seem jaded and tired. They say that when he was in Rome, Van Dyck kept aloof from his comrades, rude merry fellows and revelers of the Flemings, and for this he was mockingly nicknamed the “cavalier of painting”. This is typical of all his art. In his later work, he became more and more wary of crude simplicity and finally became a real précieux.

If we preferred to pass over Rubens' paintings on religious themes in silence, then we can do this even more thoroughly with respect to similar paintings by van Dyck, although in the sense of pure pictorial skill, some of them, including our Hermitage “Madonna with Partridges”, "Unbelief of Thomas" And “St. Sebastian", occupy the first places in the art of the late Baroque.

Anthony van Dyck.Rest on the flight to Egypt (Madonna with partridges). 2 Fragments. Early 1630s. Canvas, oil. 215x285.5. Inv. 539. From the collection. Walpole, Houghton Hall, 1779

After all, it is painful to see the cloying “dreaming” sentimentality of these paintings, their posing for grace - features in church paintings are even less endurable than the rudeness, pathos and pomp of other Flemings. Let us therefore turn immediately to the real area of ​​​​van Dyck, to portraits, pointing out in passing the enormous influence, again, of the Venetians (especially Titian), which affected the Madonna.

Van Dyck is one of the first portrait painters in the history of art. Portrait painting became his specialty precisely because of the personal nature of the artist. He was attracted to a society of elegant, well-mannered people, away from the dirt and carelessness of artistic bohemia, from the orgiasm of other Flemish creativity. It is characteristic of him that he spent a third of his life outside of Flanders, and that he ended his life as a courtier of the English king, the most refined, but also the most miserable of the sovereigns of the 17th century. The number of portraits of the master proves that real Flemish productivity lived in him, an amazing creative power. The almost uniform dignity of this endless gallery proves the enormous power of talent, unrelenting energy, which is amazing even next to the fantastic energy of Rubens. But one feature common to all van Dyck's portraits: restraint, inaccessibility, a kind of downward glance and a “noble” shadow of sadness reveal in him a painful psychology that contemporaries, especially high society, liked most of all.

Only among his bourgeois compatriots did van Dyck leave his cold politeness for a while and begin to speak in a common language. Probably, his former teacher Rubens also had a great personal influence on him in these cases. In the character of the latter, already on the return of van Dyck from Italy, Hermitage portraits were written, surprisingly strong portrait of the Antwerp "almsman" Adrian Stevens And portrait of his wife(1629). Particularly good family portrait(perhaps by the landscape painter Wildens).

Anthony van Dyck. Family portrait. Canvas, oil. 113.5x93.5. Inv. 534. From the collection. Lalive de Julie, Paris, before 1774

More Italian character are other portraits of the master, painted in Flanders (or during the first period of his stay in England), but they still give the impression of simplicity and sincerity. This includes written under the undoubted influence of Feti portrait of Jan van der Vouwer, a portrait in the style of a Florentine doctor marquisus, portrait of the great architect Jones, portrait of a young man, previously considered a self-portrait by van Dyck, portrait of the famous collector Zhabak and, finally, portraits of the Parisian philanthropist painted under the impression of Titian's works Lumanya And Sir Thomas Chaloner.

Anthony van Dyck.Self-portrait (Formerly: portrait of a young man). 1622/23. Canvas, oil. 116.5x93.5. Inv. 548. From the collection. Crozat, Paris, 1772

Anthony van Dyck. Male portrait (presumably a portrait of the Lyon banker Marc Antoine Lumagne). Canvas, oil. 104.8x85.5. From the collection Crozat, Paris, 1772

Anthony van Dyck.Portrait of Sir Thomas Chaloner. Canvas, oil. 104x81.5. Inv. 551. From the collection of Walpole, Houghton Hall, 1779

The portraits closest to Rubens (like our Wildens), as well as the historical paintings of van Dyck of the first period, also allow the attribution of such two Rubens masterpieces as the portraits of Isabella Brandt and Susanna Fourman to the student, not the teacher.

Anthony van Dyck.Portrait of Susanna Fourman (Fourman) with her daughter. Around 1621. Oil on canvas. 172.7x117.5. . Sold from the Hermitage in March 1930 to Andrew Mellon. National Gallery, Washington. Andrew W. Mellon Collection

In the picturesque respect, the paintings of van Dyck, preceding his resettlement in England, are superior to the later ones. They argue in terms of color with Rubens and Cornelis de Vos, in terms of sharpness of characterization - with the Dutchman Hals. But still, the “real van Dyck”, the artist who created a special world, was discovered only in the last ten years of his life at the elegant, proud and decadent court of the unfortunate grandson of Mary Stuart - Charles I.

Already with his father Carl Van Dyck lived for about 2 years in London. An Italian trip interrupted this stay and service. He was invited a second time in 1632, and from then on he almost constantly remained with the king (in 1634 he lived in Antwerp), married in England the noble maiden Rötven, was elevated to knighthood, became his own man in high society and copied almost without exception all prominent political figures and the whole court of England. The number of English portraits of van Dyck is fabulous. The king, the queen, their children, the unfortunate friend of King Strafford, the noble philanthropist Arondel - van Dyck even wrote several times.

Naturally, with such productivity, the technical side of the performance should have received something handicraft, especially since more and more often the master himself was forced to confine himself to a sketch from nature and entrust the completion of the portrait to his students. The last portraits also betray the great fatigue of the artist, whose strength was torn by excessive work and too luxurious a lifestyle. Characteristics become less attentive, landing poses, hand gestures become monotonous, colors fade, become cold and dead. Perhaps if Van Dyck had lived for a few more years, he would have reached a complete decline, to vulgarity. But death saved him from this and stopped him at the moment when his style began to turn into a template.

The real meaning of van Dyck is that he found style. He, a student of Rubens, thoroughly saturated with the artistic instructions of his teacher, almost the same age as Jordans, found his own style - opposite and even hostile to them, he opened a new era of painting. No wonder he was so valued in the 18th century - he was the forerunner who guessed his sophistication. Van Dyck was one of the first to find purely aristocratic formulas of art. He conveyed in painting the specific feelings of the closed world of “blue blood” at a time when this world, leaving medieval rudeness and freedom, turned into a “courtyard”, developed all the techniques of internal and external etiquette and received, instead of the uncomfortable autonomy of feudalism, a different fullness of power and huge material resources based on the sovereign's mercy and on palace intrigues. In England, in the 1630s, under the “knightly” but weak-willed Charles I, the claims of the “blue blood” reached their maximum, and the immensity of these claims ended in a political cataclysm like the one that befell France 100 years later - after the era of Louis XV and his metres .

Van Dyck's series of English portraits in the Hermitage should begin with the royal couple themselves. “Karl of the Hermitage” is not the best in terms of painting known to us, but perhaps it is the most characteristic, the most terrible. In the eyes, in the sickly complexion, in the folds of the forehead, one can see something fatal, some kind of heavy tragedy. This is no longer Charles of the Louvre portrait: an elegant gentleman, self-confident monarch, diplomat, philanthropist, hunter and sybarite. This is already Karl of the time of eternal cunning, confused politics, who saw the inevitable future and fought against fate with the most useless and inconsistent means. A good man and a benevolent politician, but decadent from head to toe... And at the same time a king from head to toe. Such a “real king”, which has not been since then in history. Louis XIV next to Charles seems to be just an "actor playing a role."

The portrait of the energetic, intelligent, but fatal for her husband queen is less expressive, like all the ladies' portraits of van Dyck in general. But what a living picture! A delightful combination of reddish and brown colors, what an impression of the highest nobility is again achieved - by absolutely confident disposal by very simple means.

Further before us pass Primate of England- another of the personalities who killed Charles, Archbishop Laud, who himself died on the chopping block (perhaps only a good copy from the portrait in Lambeth palace); majestic Earl of Denbigh,

Anthony van Dyck.Portrait of Henry Danvers, Earl of Denbigh, dressed as a Knight of the Garter. 1638/40. Canvas, oil. 223x130.6. Inv. 545. From the collection. Walpole, Houghton Hall, 1779

in his order suit, with a fashionable curious fly on his temple; long, elegant Sir Thomas Wharton, a gallant gentleman and an active participant in court events; his handsome brother Lord Philip Wharton who betrayed the king, fought against him and only later rejoined the royal party. It is typical to see such a person in fancy dress, as a shepherd boy, in velvet and silk.

Anthony van Dyck. Portrait of Philip, Lord Wharton. 1632. Oil on canvas. 133.4x106.4. Sold from the Hermitage in March 1930 to Andrew Mellon. National Gallery, Washington. Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Anthony van Dyck. Portrait of Philadelphia and Elizabeth Wharton. Late 1630s. Canvas, oil. 162x130. Inv. 533. From the collection of Walpole, Houghton Hall, 1779

They are followed by ladies: delightful in colors and very unflattered. portrait mother-in-law of the previous person, Lady Jen Goodwin in her black and pink dress, with a tulip in her hand, double portrait of Lady Delcayce and daughters Sir Thomas Killigrew Anna and another, also double, portrait of Lady Aubigny (Katharina Howard) with her sister Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland

Anthony van Dyck.Portrait of the Ladies of the Court Anne Dalquith, Countess of Morton, and Anne Kerk. 1638/40. Canvas, oil. 131.5x150.6. Inv. 540

Anthony van Dyck.Portrait of the Ladies of the Court Anne Dalquith, Countess of Morton, and AnneKirk. Close-up. 1638/40. Canvas, oil. 131.5x150.6. Inv. 540

All these are persons who did not play prominent roles in confused political, religious and court intrigues, but their images speak enough about the degree of sophistication of high English society, about the "maturity of its aristocracy." How healthy, sober, vital portraits of the 16th century and even modern Flemish and Dutch portraits seem next to these majestic simpering women. Or was it van Dijk who showed them to us like that? If this is the "artist's whim", then probably a whim that corresponded to the tastes common throughout the court aristocracy.

Anthony van Dyck was born March 22, 1599 in Antwerp, was the seventh child in the family of a wealthy cloth merchant Frans van Dyck, who was friends with many Antwerp artists. In 1609, at the age of 10, he was sent to the workshop of the famous painter Hendrick van Balen (1574/75–1632), who painted paintings on mythological themes.
In 1615-1616 Van Dyck opens his own workshop. Early works include his Self-portrait (c. 1615, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), distinguished by grace and elegance. In 1618-1620 he creates a cycle of 13 boards depicting Christ and the apostles: St. Simon (c. 1618, London, private collection), St. Matthew (c. 1618, London, private collection). The expressive faces of the apostles are painted in a free pictorial manner. Now a significant part of the boards of this cycle is scattered in museums around the world. In 1618, Van Dyck was accepted as a master in the painters' guild of St. Luke and, already having his own workshop, collaborated with Rubens, working as an assistant in his workshop.

"Self-portrait" Late 1620s - early 1630s

From 1618 to 1620, Van Dyck created works on religious themes, often in several versions: Crowning with Thorns (1621, 1st Berlin version - not preserved; 2nd - Madrid, Prado)

"Family portrait"

"Coronation with a crown of thorns" 1620s

"Prince of Wales in Armor" (future King Charles II) c. 1637

"Self-portrait with Sir Endymion Porter" ca. 1633

"Cupid and Psyche" 1638

"Lady Elizabeth Timbelby and Dorothy, Viscountess Andover"

"Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle" 1637

"Sketch depicting Princesses Elizabeth and Anne"

"James Stewart, Duke of Lennox and Richmond" 1632

"Charles I on the hunt"

"Marquise Balbi" 1625

"Charles I, triple portrait" 1625

"Marquis Antonio Giulio Brignole - Sale" 1625

"Maria Clarissa, wife of Jan Voverius, with a child" 1625

In England, the dominant genre in painting was the portrait, and Van Dyck's work in this genre in England was a significant event. The main customers were the king, members of his family, court nobility. Van Dyck's masterpieces include the Equestrian Portrait of Charles I with the Seigneur de Saint Antoune (1633, Buckingham Palace, Royal Collections). The ceremonial Portrait of Charles I on the hunt (c. 1635, Paris, Louvre) stands out, showing the king in a hunting suit, in an elegant pose against the backdrop of the landscape. Known for the so-called. Triple portrait of the king (1635, Windsor Castle, Royal Meetings), in which the king is shown in three angles, because. was intended to be sent to Italy, to the studio of Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), who was commissioned to create a bust of Charles I. Maria also wished to have her own sculptural image. In total, Van Dyck painted the queen more than 20 times, but for this idea he created three separate portraits of her, among which the most significant Portrait of Henrietta Maria with a dwarf by Sir Geoffrey Hudson (1633, Washington, National Gallery of Art). But, apparently, they were never sent, and this idea was not put into practice. Van Dyck in 1635 receives an order to paint a painting depicting the children of the king Three children of Charles I (1635, Turin, Sabauda Gallery), which was later sent to Turin, and is considered a masterpiece of a child's portrait. In the same year, he repeats the picture, and two years later he creates the painting The Five Children of Charles I (1637, Windsor Castle, Royal Collections).

During this period, Van Dyck painted spectacular portraits of courtiers, created a portrait gallery of young English aristocrats: Prince Charles Stuart (1638, Windsor, Royal Meetings), Princess Henrietta Maria and William of Orange (1641, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), Portrait of Royal Children (1637, Windsor castle, Royal collections), Portrait of Philip Wharton (1632, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), Portrait of Lords John and Bernard Stuart (c. 1638, Hampshire, Mountbatten Collection).

By the end of the 30s, he created excellent male portraits, magnificent in decision and psychological characteristics, strict and truthful: Portrait of Sir Arthur Goodwin (1639, Derbyshire, Collection of the Duke of Devonshire), Portrait of Sir Thomas Chaloner (c. 1640, St. Petersburg, Hermitage ).

"Rest on the Flight into Egypt" 1625

"Triumph of Silenus" 1625

"Samson and Delilah" 1625

"Love is not mutual"

Henrietta Maria 1632

"Queen Henrietta Maria" 1635

"Vision of the Blessed Priest Joseph"

In 1639 he marries Mary Ruthven, lady-in-waiting to the queen, in 1641 their daughter Justiniana was born. In 1641, Anthony van Dyck's health deteriorated, and after a long illness, on December 9, 1641, he died at the age of 42. He was buried at St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Van Dyck painted about 900 paintings, a huge number for a man whose creative activity lasted about 20 years. He left a grandiose legacy, not only because he worked quickly and easily, but also because he used numerous assistants, artists from Flanders and England, who painted backgrounds, draperies, used mannequins to paint clothes.

The work of Van Dyck had a huge impact on the development of English and European portraiture. He was the founder of the English school of portraiture, whose traditions will be preserved in art for centuries. Van Dyck in portraits showed people of different classes, different social levels, different in spiritual and intellectual disposition. An adherent of the traditions of Flemish realism, he was the creator of the official ceremonial portrait, including an aristocratic portrait, in which he showed a noble, refined, refined person, and was also the creator of an intellectual portrait.

"Estimated portrait of the Marquise Geronima Spinola-Doria"

"Self-portrait" Late 1620s - early 1630s

"Mary Stuart and William of Orange. Wedding portrait"

"Portrait of Charles I"

"Dorothy, Lady Dacre"

"portrait of a man in armor with re"

"Henrietta Maria"

"Queen Henrietta Maria" 1632

"Queen Henrietta Maria" 1632

"Young Woman Playing the Viol"

"Portrait of Charles I"

"Maria Louise de Tassis" 1630

"Thomas Chaloner"

"Portrait of prince Charles Louis"

George Goring, Baron Goring

"Cornelis van der Geest Huile sur panneau"

"Self-portrait"

"Portrait de mary Lady killigrew"

Wharton Philadelphia Elizabeth

"Henrietta Maria and Charles I"

"Mary with the Christ Child"

"SELF-PORTRAIT"

"James Stewart, Duke of Aeknock and Richmond"

Anthony Van Dyck

(1599 - 1641)

South Dutch (Flemish) painter and graphic artist, master of court portraits and religious subjects in the Baroque style.

self-portrait

First third XVII century

Oil on canvas, 81x70

Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Anthony Van Dyck lived a short but colorful life. He worked in various genres - he painted pictures on the themes of the Old and New Testaments, mythological scenes, portraits, but he entered the history of art primarily as a wonderful portrait painter. He was a student of Rubens himself, but Van Dyck's talent was so significant that it allowed him to overcome the powerful influence of Rubens and create his own artistic language. Rubens was not a major portrait painter, since his impulsive nature could not linger for a long time on the study of individual phenomena.

Van Dyck, in addition to a sharp vision of an individual and physiognomic gift, was endowed with an amazing subtlety and emotionality of perception. Therefore, his real vocation was the art of portraiture. His images are distinguished by a penetrating lyricism and spirituality that influenced the art of Rubens himself.

In children's portraits, he achieved extreme tenderness, and in canvases on religious subjects - deep spirituality. Many of his paintings on religious and mythological subjects were in great demand among church and secular customers.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna still hangs a wonderful self-portrait of the artist, written by him at the age of 16 years old (c. 1615).

The young artist looks over his right shoulder, his gaze direct and determined. The collar of his shirt is painted with a single bold stroke of white, which testifies to a rare skill and self-confidence for such a young artist. Such a polished technique and a sense of one's own strength are characteristic features of the work of Anthony van Dyck. Historians called him a child prodigy - an artist by nature.

The artist was born into a wealthy family of an Antwerp merchant (modern Belgium). He received an excellent education: except for the Flemish language. Antonis spoke Spanish, Italian, French and English, had a brilliant knowledge of history, theology and world culture. The boy began to learn to draw at the age of 10, at the age of 16 the young man already had his own workshop, and at 18 he began to collaborate with Peter Rubens.

For some time, Anthony Van Dyck worked at the court of the English King James I, who appointed the artist an "annual pension", but he refused the offer to stay in London and went to Italy to complete his art education. It took the master of the brush more than six years to study Italian art. In Genoa, Rome, Venice, Milan, the artist painted portraits of his contemporaries. From a four-year journey, Van Dyck's "Italian Album" remained to the descendants.

Family portrait,

1618-1621

State Hermitage,

Saint Petersburg.

It's about one of Van Dyck's early masterpieces. Like many images of the artist, the portrait immediately gives rise to the feeling of a live meeting with real people. Calmly, with a soft smile, a pretty woman with a child in her arms looks at us from the portrait, next to her is her husband, in his face one can guess the nature of an outstanding, strong and nervous. The intense, burning gaze of the man is fixedly fixed on the viewer, as if waiting for an answer from us. It seems that the hero of van Dyck is engaged in a dialogue with an invisible interlocutor. This sense of direct contact was a discovery in European art and appeared only in portraits of the 17th century.

At the same time, with the help of a unique technique for the execution of works, he perfects the type of baroque ceremonial portrait, in which the main role is played by the posture and gesture of a person.For example,

A. Van Dyck.

Portrait of a cardinal

Guido Bentivoglio,

1623

Oil on canvas, 196 x 147

Pitti Gallery, Florence.

Marquise Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo,

1623

Canvas, oil, 246 x 173. National Gallery, Washington

Having settled in Genoa since 1624, the artist became a popular portrait painter of famous aristocratic families of the city. Van Dyck creates brilliant portraits in which haughty elders, noble gentlemen, slender women, in heavy, rich dresses with long trains, they are depicted in full growth against the background of purple and massive columns of luxurious Genoese palaces.

Portrait of the Marquis Antonio Giulio Brignole-Sale

First third of the 17th century

Oil on canvas, 250 x 127

Museum in Genoa

Palazzo Rosso

Male portrait (presumably a portrait of the Parisian banker Marc Antoine Lumagne)

1620s

State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Portrait of a young woman with a child. Between 1618 and 1621 State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Some anxiety is read in the trusting wide-open eyes of a young mother holding a child on her lap (presumably a portrait of Balthazarina van Linik with her son Adrian).

Portrait of Elizabeth and Philadelphia Wharton (?)

Late 1630s

State Hermitage,

Saint Petersburg

Children's portraits open up another facet of his art. Van Dyck is famous as a master of children's portraits. Never falling into any puppetry, nor in sweetness, in his portraits of children, he subtly emphasized the features of childhood, he knew how to convey all the freshness and naivety of a child's perception of the world. Both girls in the Hermitage portrait, combed and dressed like real court ladies, are posing for the artist. Trying to maintain adult seriousness, they carry themselves with all the spontaneity of children, with pleasure and not without cunning playing their part.

Portrait

Nicholas Rocox

About 1621

State Hermitage,

Saint Petersburg

Lush fluttering draperies of a sonorous red tone, details of the ceremonial architecture bring a touch of elation and solemnity into the portraits. However, behind this ceremonial environment, the artist never loses a person. The books and antique busts placed on the table in the "Portrait of Antwerp Mayor Nicolas Rocox" reflect the rich world of spiritual interests of the person represented, a well-known numismatist, collector and patron of the arts in his time. Such a keen attention to the spiritual, intellectual side of human activity is gradually developed in the portrait art of Van Dyck. In his portraits, the high idea of ​​the significance of the human personality, characteristic of the Flemish art of the first half of the 17th century, was also reflected.

male portrait (presumably a portrait of the Antwerp doctor Lazar Maharkeyzus),

1620s

State Hermitage Museum,

Saint Petersburg

The artist is not interested in either the costume or the environment, only the person himself, his spiritual movements, his inner world.

The man does not pose, he is captured at the moment, probably, of a dispute, he passionately proves something to someone, reinforcing his words with a gesture of his hand. Here the artist resorts to a peculiar and new technique, revealing the inner impulse, the inner spiritual tension of a person through an external action. A lively look directed towards an invisible interlocutor, an impulsive posture, movable fingers - everything helps to reveal the inner being of a person, his temperament, to emphasize his spiritual significance.

There are no bright colors in the portrait. Van Dyck uses only the contrasts of black and white. But resorting to such laconic means, the artist achieves the impression of exceptional colorful wealth. Thick dark tones are saturated with hot reddish hues, as if reflecting the inner spiritual burning of the depicted person, his passionate emotional outburst. In this character of color, warm, saturated, as if radiating inner light, Van Dyck's study of the experience of Venetian colorists and, above all, Titian, affected.

Portrait

Eberhard Jabach.

Saint Petersburg

Using a successful solution once found in different portraits, Van Dyck always unmistakably knows how to find and emphasize those sometimes subtle individual features of the external and internal appearance of the model, which allow him to create a different image each time, even within the framework of the developed scheme, because it is they and form the basis of similarity in the portrait.

Van Dyck enriches the portrait by depicting it in depth against the background of a specific corner of English nature. Written with an unusually light, free, almost sketchy breadth, which contrasts somewhat with the delicacy of the texture of the portrait image itself, this landscape introduces a light romantic note into the general structure of the portrait.

Portrait

Anne Dalquith (?) and

Anna Kirk.

Late 1630s State Hermitage,

Saint Petersburg

The sonorous splendor of the foreground is further emphasized by the black and gold drapery in the background and the twilight tones of the evening landscape in the depths. Not a single spot breaks out of the general color scheme of the portrait, each tone finds its own echo, merging into a single and integral colorful harmony.

Portrait

Thomas Chaloner,

1630s

State Hermitage,

Saint Petersburg

The artist, without any idealization, shows the face of a middle-aged man, with flabby skin and reddened eyelids. But the energetic, imperious turn of the head, the quivering nostrils, the tightly compressed mouth, and especially the eyes, bright and piercing, make it possible to feel the dynamics of this man's inner life. The intense emotionality that permeates the entire structure of the portrait, as it were, reflects the very atmosphere in which English society lived on the eve of the bourgeois revolution. The portrait of Chaloner is executed with such ease and freedom that it seems to have been written in one step. Van Dyck paints very thinly and delicately, with small strokes, modeling the face and hand imperiously pointing at the hilt of the sword, paints the hair with sketchy freedom, with long, wriggling, mobile strokes he conveys the play of reflections of the black silk of the suit, the play of light on the breaks of its folds. The colorful gamut of the portrait is extremely stingy; and this almost monochrome in its laconic color structure of the canvas emphasizes the beauty of the image.

Encouraging to look into the eyes of one or another of his characters, creating in the viewer a feeling of personal contact with him, the artist thereby evokes active empathy of the viewer with the spiritual world of the person depicted in the portrait. The portrait becomes more alive, more emotionally intense and psychologically deeper. Van Dyck, recreating with amazing persuasiveness the living image of a person posing for him, never sought to achieve a simple illusion of reality. His portraits are, first of all, pictorial images embodied on the picture plane in an inextricable connection with it. And the very handwriting of the painter, the movements of his brush play a significant role in their creation.

Rest on the flight to Egypt ("Madonna with partridges"), 1632. State Hermitage Museum,

Saint Petersburg

Features of sophistication are also distinguished by the religious compositions of Van Dyck, performed in the second Antwerp period of the artist's work. One of the best among them is “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” (“Madonna with Partridges”). Echoes of Titian’s art are again felt in the noblely majestic outlines of the Madonna’s figure, in the wide smooth undulating rhythm of the composition. The main group of actors - the Madonna with a child on her knees and Joseph - the artist shifts to the left. Most of the composition, almost its central place, is occupied by a cheerful round dance of angel children playing the “golden gate”. The Christ child reaches out to them. The artist conveys all the liveliness and immediacy of these cute children's figures, but their movements are slow, and perhaps a little deliberately graceful. 1615–1616.

State Hermitage,

Saint Petersburg

In human faces, temperaments and characters, an inexhaustible miracle of life's unrest, feelings, passions appeared before him. To reveal the inner emotional world of a person, to convey the dynamics of the human soul - this is what irresistibly attracted the attention of the artist from the first steps of his independent creative path. Already in the early series of images of the apostles, he was fascinated by the task not so much to capture the characteristic appearance of a person, but to reveal what lies behind the outer shell, spiritualizes it.

The work of Van Dyck paved the way for the future, contributed to the creation of a whole school of excellent English portrait painters of the 18th century. and had a significant impact on the development of portraiture in Europe.

February 21, 2013

The Hermitage has an excellent collection of works by one of the greatest masters of European painting of the 17th century, Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641). Room 246 of the Hermitage houses 26 paintings made by Van Dyck in different periods of his work, written in different countries - in Flanders, Italy and England.

"Portrait of a young woman with a child"

Among the works in which the realistic gift of Van Dyck manifested itself with particular brightness is “Portrait of a Young Woman with a Child”. This is the only painting by the artist in the Hermitage that has survived in its original form, on a board, and has not been transferred to canvas for better preservation. It is written over light ground, according to the Old Flemish tradition. A calm representative composition with a lady seated majestically in a solemn pose (as it was believed, Baltazarina van Linnik, a relative of Antwerp Burgomaster Rokoks, whose portrait is nearby) makes an amazingly lively impression. A sickly-looking woman is depicted, pale, with a high forehead, sad intelligent eyes and childishly swollen lips. Van Dyck captured a complex, not devoid of contradictions, image. While the picture is painted with a smooth layer of thick paint, and sometimes with body strokes, so that you can trace the movement of the brush (this is typical for Van Dyck's manner), the artist, in order to highlight the face of the person being portrayed, paints it in a technically different way - with a thin enamel paint layer of color ivory, softly modeling the volume with soft pink and yellow hues. Here, as in many other works, Van Dyck captures the moment of direct communication between the depicted and the viewer: the mother and child, who had just played with a fan, looked at us. This moment was captured by Van Dyck.

One of the best works at the exhibition - "Portrait of a Man" - is built by the author as a dialogue; however, one of the partners is not depicted, but in communication with him the character of the person being portrayed is revealed. The dynamic composition is based on the contrast of the directions of movement of a person and a chair turned in the opposite direction, on the "struggle" of light and darkness. The artist clearly reveals the spiritual essence of man. The picture can be put on a par with the best psychological portraits of Rembrandt.

During the study of this work by Van Dyck, another image was found under the top layer of paint - a sketch for the famous "Portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio", created by the artist in 1623 (Florence, Pitti Gallery). Apparently, the Hermitage painting was also made in Italy, and the sketch, no longer needed for work, was written down by the artist.

Van Dyck is not only a portrait painter. Among his best plot compositions is the Hermitage Madonna with Partridges. The plot traditional in European art - the rest of the holy family on the way to Egypt - Van Dyck receives a peculiar embodiment. The scene depicting the Madonna and Child, St. Joseph and figures of babies entertaining Christ, he gives a somewhat theatrical character. Almost staged, in a ballet way, a children's round dance looks, bright and elegant details bring a decorative element into the picture. These details had an allegorical meaning associated with the cult of the Virgin Mary (the rose and lily are Mary's flowers; the apple reminds her that she atones for Eve's sin; the sunflower, which always reaches for the sun, is a hint of the lofty thoughts of the Mother of God; partridge is a symbol of debauchery - flies away). At the same time, Van Dyck gives the scene an intimacy and warmth. The female image is sensually tangible, the children playing the “golden gates” are graceful and graceful; the softness and dullness of the coloring of the picture well convey the atmosphere and lighting of the coming evening.

Ceremonial portraits of Van Dyck

The last decade of Van Dyck's work, when he lived in London and worked as the court painter of the English king, includes a number of large ceremonial paintings from the Hermitage collection. These are portraits of Charles I himself, his wife - Queen Henrietta Maria, as well as courtiers - Thomas Wharton, Earl of Denby and others. Called to exalt and immortalize representatives of the highest aristocracy in a solemn and ceremonial form, such paintings were often built according to a certain scheme, which gradually developed in the art of Van Dyck and for a long time became the standard for ceremonial portraits of many European painters. Such works are characterized by a large size of the canvas, which gives scale to the image, a vertical format that allows you to give a full-length figure, emphasizing its harmony and grace, spectacular poses and gestures, elegant toilets, accessories, reminiscent of the social status of the person being portrayed, and the calculation for viewing from below. However, in Van Dyck's formal portraits, we are primarily attracted by the master's ability to convey the unique individual features of the model, the virtuosity of execution, and high coloristic merits. These paintings also have great iconographic value, being, as it were, "history in faces."

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In 1615-1616 Van Dyck opens his own workshop. Early works include his Self-portrait (c. 1615, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), distinguished by grace and elegance. In 1618-1620 he creates a cycle of 13 boards depicting Christ and the apostles: St. Simon (c. 1618, London, private collection), St. Matthew (c. 1618, London, private collection). The expressive faces of the apostles are painted in a free pictorial manner. Now a significant part of the boards of this cycle is scattered in museums around the world. In 1618, Van Dyck was accepted as a master in the painters' guild of St. Luke and, already having his own workshop, collaborated with Rubens, working as an assistant in his workshop.

From 1618 to 1620, Van Dyck creates works on religious themes, often in several versions: Crowning with thorns (1621, 1st Berlin version - not preserved; 2nd - Madrid, Prado); Kiss of Judas (c. 1618-1620, 1st version - Madrid, Prado; 2nd - Minneapolis, Institute of Arts); Carrying the Cross (c. 1617–1618, Antwerp, Sint-Pauluskerk); St. Martin and the Beggars (1620-1621, 1st version - Windsor Castle, Royal Assembly; 2nd version - Zaventem, St. Martin Church), Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (1624–1625, Munich, Alte Pinakothek).

Anthony van Dyck owes his fame to the portrait genre, which occupied a low position in the hierarchy of European painting genres. However, in Flanders by this time a tradition of portrait art had already developed. Van Dyck painted hundreds of portraits, several self-portraits, became one of the creators of the ceremonial portrait of the 17th century. In the portraits of his contemporaries, he showed their intellectual, emotional world, spiritual life, the living character of a person. In early portraits, Van Dyck paints wealthy citizens, artists with families. The theme of depicting families and married couples, so widespread in the art of the Netherlands in the 16th century, was taken up by Van Dyck: Portrait of Frans Snyders with Marguerite de Vos (c. 1621, Kassel, Art Gallery). In the famous Family Portrait (1623, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), Van Dyck conveyed natural movements and gestures, seemingly random poses, lively glances directed at the viewer - he brings all these innovations to the art of portraiture. The famous portraits of this period include the Portrait of Cornelius van der Gest (c. 1620, London, National Gallery), fanned by subtle psychologism.

In 1920, on the initiative of the Royal Marshal Thomas Howerd, Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), Van Dyck was invited to England as a court painter. Here he gets acquainted with the works of the High Renaissance. The artist repeatedly painted portraits of the earl and members of his family, the best of which is Portrait of the Earl of Arundel with his grandson Lord Montervers (c. 1635, Arendel Castle, Collection of the Duke of Norfolk).

Van Dyck, after spending about a year in England, makes a trip to Italy, a number of cities where he visits in the retinue of Lady Arendel. On the way to Italy, he stops by Antwetpen, where he paints several paintings, the most famous of which is the portrait of Rubens' wife Portrait of Isabella Brandt (c. 1621, Washington, National Gallery of Art).

In Italy, in which Van Dyck spent from 1621 to 1627, he studied the works of Italian painting. Admiring the work of Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese (1528–1588), he made sketches from nature, sketches of paintings by famous artists, which made up Van Dyck's Italian Album (London, British Museum). Having settled in Genoa, he lived for a long time in Rome, Mantua, Venice, Turin, Florence, continuing to paint portraits. Among them is the emphatically ceremonial Portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio (1623, Florence, Pitti Gallery), which combines external representativeness with the disclosure of a rich inner life.

In 1624, Van Dyck received an invitation from the Viceroy of Sicily to visit Palermo, where he painted a generational Portrait of Viceroy Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy (1624), as well as a large altarpiece for the Oratorio del Rosario church in Palermo, Madonna of the Rosary (1624-1627) - the largest commission received by Van Dyck from the church during the Italian period.

Returning to Genoa, Van Dyck, already a well-known, fashionable portrait painter, paints brilliant portraits-paintings. He creates complex compositions of a ceremonial portrait, in which a somewhat romanticized, majestic world of the aristocracy appears. He portrays those portrayed in full growth against the backdrop of luxurious palaces, open terraces, majestic landscapes, gives them proud poses and spectacular gestures. The splendor of their costumes with brilliantly written fabrics, with flowing folds, enhance the significance of the images. Portrait of the Marquise Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo with a Negro servant (1623, Washington, National Gallery of Art), Portrait of the Marchesa Balbi (c. 1623, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), Portrait of Paola Adorno with her son (c. 1623, Washington, National Gallery of Art) , group portrait Portrait of the Lomellini family (1624–1626, Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland). At this time, he turned to the image of elderly people, marked by the seal of a lived life: Portrait of a Senator and Portrait of a Senator's Wife (1622–1627, Berlin, State Museums), as well as to the image of children, creating for the first time in the history of art the first ceremonial children's group portrait: Portrait children of the de Franchi family (1627, London, National Gallery).

In 1627 Van Dyck returned to Antwerp, where he stayed until 1632, and took over the inheritance after his father's death. His popularity is enormous: he fulfills orders for large altar paintings for the churches of Antwerp, Ghent, Courtrai, Melechen, portraits, paintings on mythological themes. For the Jesuit Church, Van Dyck paints a large altarpiece of the Vision of St. Augustine (1628, Antwerp, Church of St. Augustine), for the chapel of the Brotherhood of Bachelors in the Antwerp Jesuit Church - the Mother of God and the baby Jesus with St. Rosalia, Peter and Paul (1629, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), for the Dominican Church in Antwerp - Crucifixion with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena (1629, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts). He creates many smaller canvases on religious themes: The Vision of the Mother of God to Blessed Herman Joseph (1630, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), Our Lady with Partridges (early 1630s, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), written for the Queen of England.

Among the portraits of Van Dyck of this period, images of representatives of the ruling circles, noble families, clergy, dignitaries, and artists prevailed. He lovingly paints the details of costumes, jewelry, and at the same time his painting is very free: dynamic strokes, wide writing. He brilliantly conveys the inner world of the person being portrayed, they are full of life, natural: Portrait of Jan van der Wauwer (1632, Moscow, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), Portrait of Martin Reikart (1630, Madrid, Prado), Portrait of Maria Louise de Tassis (1628, Vaduz, Collection Liechtenstein).

From 1626 to 1633 he creates a gallery of graphic portraits of prominent contemporaries, called Iconography. For the etching series, he made preparatory drawings from life, some of the etchings were made by Van Dyck himself, some with the help of engravers. The portraits were divided into three groups: monarchs and generals (16 portraits), statesmen and philosophers (12 portraits), artists and collectors (52 portraits). Van Dyck made some drawings from nature, others from portraits painted by himself or other artists. The iconography was published in 1632 in Antwerp. Van Dyck's self-portrait was placed on the title page. After his death, Martin van Emden, the engraver who printed these etchings, sold the original 80 boards. To these were added another 15 boards engraved by Van Dyck himself, as well as engravings by other artists, so that the total number was brought to 100. This edition appeared in 1645 and became known as Centum Icones (One Hundred Images). Iconography is not only an important historical document, but also has a highly artistic value.

In 1632, at the invitation of King Charles I (1625-1649), whom Rubens called "the greatest lover of painting of all the sovereigns of the world," Van Dyck went to England. There he receives the position of "chief painter in the service of their majesty", a title of nobility and a gold chain.

In 1634, Van Dyck visited Antwerp and then Brussels, where he painted portraits of the nobility: Portrait of Cardinal Infante Ferdinand (1634, Madrid, Prado), Equestrian portrait of Thomas, Prince of Savoy-Carignan (1634, Turin, Sabauda Gallery). He received a major commission to complete a life-size group portrait of city echevens (municipal councilors) for the hall of the town hall. From the painting that died in 1695, only preparatory oil sketches have survived.

October 18, 1634 the guild of St. Luke of Antwerp recognized Van Dyck as the best among the Flemish artists, awarding him the highest award: he was elected an honorary dean, his name was entered in capital letters in the list of members of the guild.

Soon Van Dyck returned to England, where he spent the next 15 years.

He painted pictures on mythological themes: Rinaldo and Armida (1628, Baltimore, Art Gallery), Cupid and Psyche (1638, London, Hepton Court).

In England, the dominant genre in painting was the portrait, and Van Dyck's work in this genre in England was a significant event. The main customers were the king, members of his family, court nobility. Van Dyck's masterpieces include the Equestrian Portrait of Charles I with the Seigneur de Saint Antoune (1633, Buckingham Palace, Royal Collections). The ceremonial Portrait of Charles I on the hunt (c. 1635, Paris, Louvre) stands out, showing the king in a hunting suit, in an elegant pose against the backdrop of the landscape. Known for the so-called. Triple portrait of the king (1635, Windsor Castle, Royal Meetings), in which the king is shown in three angles, because. was intended to be sent to Italy, to the workshop of Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), who was commissioned to create a bust of Charles I. Maria also wished to have her own sculptural image. In total, Van Dyck painted the queen more than 20 times, but for this idea he created three separate portraits of her, among which the most significant Portrait of Henrietta Maria with a dwarf by Sir Geoffrey Hudson (1633, Washington, National Gallery of Art). But, apparently, they were never sent, and this idea was not put into practice. Van Dyck in 1635 receives an order to paint a painting depicting the children of the king Three children of Charles I (1635, Turin, Sabauda Gallery), which was later sent to Turin, and is considered a masterpiece of a child's portrait. In the same year, he repeats the picture, and two years later he creates the painting The Five Children of Charles I (1637, Windsor Castle, Royal Collections).

During this period, Van Dyck painted spectacular portraits of courtiers, created a portrait gallery of young English aristocrats: Prince Charles Stuart (1638, Windsor, Royal Meetings), Princess Henrietta Maria and William of Orange (1641, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), Portrait of Royal Children (1637, Windsor castle, Royal collections), Portrait of Philip Wharton (1632, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), Portrait of Lords John and Bernard Stuart (c. 1638, Hampshire, Mountbatten Collection).

By the end of the 30s, he created excellent male portraits, magnificent in decision and psychological characteristics, strict and truthful: Portrait of Sir Arthur Goodwin (1639, Derbyshire, Collection of the Duke of Devonshire), Portrait of Sir Thomas Chaloner (c. 1640, St. Petersburg, Hermitage ).

In 1639 he marries Mary Ruthven, lady-in-waiting to the queen, in 1641 their daughter Justiniana was born. In 1641, Anthony van Dyck's health deteriorated, and after a long illness, on December 9, 1641, he died at the age of 42. He was buried at St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Van Dyck painted about 900 paintings, a huge number for a man whose creative activity lasted about 20 years. He left a grandiose legacy, not only because he worked quickly and easily, but also because he used numerous assistants, artists from Flanders and England, who painted backgrounds, draperies, used mannequins to paint clothes.

The work of Van Dyck had a huge impact on the development of English and European portraiture. He was the founder of the English school of portraiture, whose traditions will be preserved in art for centuries. Van Dyck in portraits showed people of different classes, different social levels, different in spiritual and intellectual disposition. An adherent of the traditions of Flemish realism, he was the creator of the official ceremonial portrait, including an aristocratic portrait, in which he showed a noble, refined, refined person, and was also the creator of an intellectual portrait.