Daniel van den Dyck

Portrait of a nobleman

Daniel van den Dyck , known in Italy as Daniel Vandich (baptized December 3, 1614 in Antwerp , † 1663 in Mantua ) was a Flemish painter, engraver, architect and engineer. After training in Antwerp, he went to Italy, where he first worked in Venice and later was court painter in Mantua. He was a versatile artist who painted mythological and religious scenes as well as portraits and flower pictures.

Life

Van den Dyck apprenticed as a painter to Peter Verhaecht (died around 1652) in Antwerp and was accepted as a master in the painters' guild (St. Luke's Guild) in 1633 or 1634. At the end of September 1633 he left Antwerp and went to Italy. First he was in Bergamo . In 1634 he settled in Venice . There he married the daughter of the painter Nicolas Régnier . With Pietro della Vecchia (1603–1678), who had married another daughter of Régnier, he painted wall decorations in the Palazzo Pearo in Preganziol . The frescoes in the Villa Contarini in Mira near Venice (from the legend of the psyche) were ascribed to him.

From 1658 he worked at the court of the Duke of Mantua. He was appointed by Duke Carlo II Gonzaga as his official court painter, architect, surveying engineer for his building program and engineer for the theater's stage designs, as well as director of the ducal gallery. He was entrusted with the reconstruction of the ducal art collection that had been dispersed during the reign of the two previous dukes. Possibly his appointment was made on the recommendation of his father-in-law, who had served the duke on various occasions. As Prefetto delle Fabbriche (surveyor), van den Dyck had to move between the various construction sites such as Maderno, Marmirolo, Mantua and Venice in order to control the transport of the numerous marble statues, to check the progress and quality of the various construction works on the ducal palace and the suburban residences, To order supplies and tools, to organize the daily work of the workers and to ensure through frequent correspondence that the Duke was informed in good time. The constant and strenuous journeys in this role did not allow van den Dyck to work as a painter, the main reason for his appointment to the court. This may explain why van den Dyck ran a large workshop with assistants. These assistants made his works, which he then "touched up".

Works

Daniel van den Dyck was a versatile artist who created mythological and religious scenes as well as portraits and flower pictures. He also created graphics based on his own designs. He often signed his works with his Italian name 'Daniele vanden Dyck'. Very few of his works have survived or could be identified with certainty.

His style is influenced by Peter Paul Rubens , as his painting of Saint Lawrence in the Madonna dell'Orto church in Venice shows.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Anne-Marie Logan, 'Daniel van den Dyck (Daniel Vandich)', Wallraf-Richartz Yearbook 55 (1994), pp. 95-104
2. ↑ Daniel van den Dyck, `` Portrait of a Nobleman '' , Sotheby's
3. ↑ Of the five paintings in the Accademia Carrara ascribed to him, at least the three dated 1633 are probably not by him, as he did not travel to Italy until the end of the year.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Nicola Ivanoff, Daniele van den Dyck , in: Emporium, CXVIII (1953), pp. 244-250
5. ↑ Roberta Piccinelli, The position of Artists at the Gonzaga Court (1587-1707) , in: E. Fumagalli, R. Morselli, (ed.), The Court Artists in Seventeenth-Century Italy, Rome: Viella 2014, p 167 -198

Web links

Commons : Daniel van den Dyck  - collection of images