Discovering the Elegance of Van Dyck: A Journey Through the Baroque Canvases
The elegance of the sign, taking up the master Rubens, the sobriety in the use of colour, according to the Italian Renaissance tradition, up to the conquest, in the years of full maturity, of a recognizable and completely autonomous, meticulous and intuitive style, in which technical perfection blends with grace, solemnity and refinement: this is what characterizes the baroque canvases of Antoon van Dyck (1599-1641). This spring, the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa will host an exhibition dedicated to the Flemish master, showcasing his chromaticism and psychological depth.
The Exhibition: “Van Dyck the European. The journey of a genius from Antwerp to Genoa and London”
Curated by Anna Orlando and Katlijne Van der Stighelen, and with an international honorary scientific committee, made up of Italian and foreign scholars, the retrospective is the largest in the last twenty-five years dedicated to the Antwerp master. Van Dyck was an excellent portraitist of the European courts, but also a complete and versatile artist, restless and sensitive, capable with his attentive eye and the skilful use of light of describing environments, objects, emotional states, classical and sacred themes in a formidable way.
A Fully European Artist
The idea that animates the project is to retrace the different phases that characterized the artistic parable of the Flemish painter, but above all to underline his surprising ability to systematize a series of solutions and sensibilities coming from various environments and, at the same time, to then translate them into innovative formulas. Van Dyck was a fully European artist, having worked in Italy, Flanders, and London, where he was called to paint for King Charles I of England. The exhibition will host 58 canvases by van Dyck, lent by the largest museums in Europe, including the Louvre in Paris, the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and the National Gallery in London.
Thematic Sections and Artworks
The itinerary, divided into ten thematic sections, will allow the public to admire up close the self-portraits that made the artist famous and much loved, including the first known self-portrait of the painter, painted when van Dyck was a boy, around fifteen years old. A large part of the exhibition will be dedicated to sacred-themed works, exceptional for their mix of theater and pathos, religion and sentiment, such as the great Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine from the Prado or the Saint Sebastian from the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.
Production and Support
The exhibition is produced by the Palazzo Ducale Foundation for Culture, with the support of the Liguria Region and the Municipality of Genoa. This event is a unique opportunity to discover the genius of Van Dyck and his contribution to the European art scene. For more information, please visit Here