285 by ryan on 05/31/02 at 1:57 AM
Re: anthony van dyck's technique

Early on Van dyck painted stylistically similar to his teacher, Rubens. Later on ,after he matured and made his trip to Italy, his technique changed. He was greatly influenced by the Venitian masters and began using a very warm ground, unlike Rubens Grey ground. On top of this he would do his drawing and heighten this with white using a loaded brush. Rather than painting all th values with black and white as in Ingres underpaintings, he would just thin the white as he moved toward the darks and use the brown textured canvas to created the shadows and optical greys. Only in the thick impast strokes is it impossible to see the linens weave. On top of this he would work very rapidly, painting thinly but in an alla prima fashion.