Anthony Van Dyck's "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 rock and to enhance the physical quality of Andromeda's skin and drapery.
He began formal classes in 1591 with Adam van Noort in his studio. He then moved onto being an apprentice to Otto van Veen. Van Veen had notable influence upon Rubens" early style. ... Among his assistants was Anthony Van Dyck. ... His successor was Jacob Jordaen since Van Dyck passed away only a year after his teacher. ...
Rembrandt's mother was Neeltgen (also called Cornelia) Willemsdochter van Zuytbrouck. ... Jacob van Swanenburgh, was the son of Isaac van Swanenburgh, a well-known painter and a former Burgomaster of Leyden. ... Lastman, like Jacob van Swanenburgh, had studied in Italy. However, unlike, van Swanenburgh, Lastman benefited from his Italian studies. ... Clearly, the influence of Sir Anthony van Dyck is also evident. ...
