Light And Dark Colors In Anthony Van Dyck's Art

The seventeenth century was a period where kings and queens were viewed as semi-divine and the camera was not yet invented. This allowed artists like Anthony Van Dyck to produce a sense of likeness and flattery to their portraits, to display the ruler’s status. Anthony Van Dyck was a Flemish baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England; his most famous painting is King Charles I at the Hunt. King Charles is standing casually dressed next to a man and a horse, showing a bit of a contrasting between light and dark colors. Van Dyck was known for his usage of warm colors and enhancing the faces of those he painted with specific scenery to display realism. He used watercolors and etching, providing pleasant features to the setting …show more content…
In an article by Roberta Smith called “ Van Dyck at the Frick, Documenting Aristocracy”, she talks about the rise of Van Dyck’s popularity and how he was favored by King Charles I. She mentioned how not only was he able to display realism and expressionism in secular paintings, but also in religious one like the painting of Samson and Delilah and The Crucifixion of Jesus. These paintings revealed sorrow through dark tones and the use of body language that revealed grief. Similarly, Souren Melikian’s article “ Van Dyck’s climb to the top’, discusses how Van Dyck’s use of dark tones allowed him to present emotion in his paintings making it appear realistic to the audience. Another thing Van Dyck did was that he added beautiful scenery in his paintings, adding clouds, a beautiful light-blue sky, and trees when painting rulers to show calmness and charisma to these people. He used light colors mixed with dark tones to provide a calm environment to his paintings, which is why he attracted rulers in England because they needed painters who would enhance their image and make them look more