What shaped Anthony van Dyck’s signature style? A sweeping new exhibition points to the Flemish artist’s Italian years as the decisive turning point in his rise to international fame.
Bringing together some 60 works from major institutions including the Louvre, Prado, and National Gallery, “Van Dyck: The European. The Journey of a Genius from Antwerp to Genoa and London” at Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale provides new revelations about Van Dyck’s six-year stint in Italy, repositioning it as a period of experimentation and independence. It highlights how his exposure to Renaissance and Baroque masters produced the refined, theatrical portrait style that would later captivate the court of King Charles I.
Born in 1599, Van Dyck started his training under the painter Hendrick van Balen the Elder when he was just 10 years old. By 1616, he had set up an independent workshop and, just a couple years later, would become chief assistant to Peter Paul Rubens.
The budding Baroque master moved to Genoa in 1621, when he was still in his early twenties. There, Van Dyck studied first-hand the Italian greats, from Renaissance masters like Leonardo, Raphael, and his idol Titian, to leading contemporaries like Caravaggio and Bernini. These influences were combined with those of Van Dyck’s native Flanders to create a unique painting style that would inspire many more generations of portrait painters, from Thomas Gainsborough to John Singer Sargent.
Anthony van Dyck, Self-portrait (1615–17). Courtesy of Rubenshuis, Antwerp.
“Van Dyck’s stay in Italy was pivotal to the development of his artistic language, above all because it accelerated his emancipation from the model of his master Rubens,” said Anna Orlando, co-curator of “Van Dyck: The European.” Additionally, he absorbed and reinterpreted this Italian pictorial language, “achieving a strikingly original and innovative synthesis” in his own work.
Rarely Seen Gems
The most comprehensive Van Dyck survey in over 25 years, the Genoa exhibition begins with a remarkably self-assured self-portrait completed when the artist was just 15 and traces the artist’s trajectory from child prodigy to international star. Important portraits made by the artist while in Genoa include (1626–27), on loan from the National Gallery in London for the first time since its subjects were identified by Orlando in 2024.
Moreover, it boasts impressive loans from top institutions and private collections. These include (1625) from a private collection that is being exhibited publicly for the very first time. The composition indicates something of Van Dyck’s unique abilities with its “powerful impact, while also revealing an extraordinary free and spontaneous handling of paint,” Orlando said.
Anthony Van Dyck, Portrait of Alessandro, Vincenzo and Francesco Maria Giustiniani Longo (ca. 1626–1627). © The National Gallery, London. All rights reserved.
Another rare treat is the altarpiece from the church of San Michele di Pagana, a small town on the eastern Ligurian Riviera, which has never been loaned before. For Orlando, the work is immensely expressive. “The physical presence of the work transforms the dying Christ on the cross into a powerful image of pain, sacrifice, and passion,” she said, “rendered with an immediacy that makes him profoundly human and deeply relatable to the viewer.”
These works also emphasize a much lesser-known aspect of Van Dyck’s practice: his religious painting. The artist was “a deeply engaged Catholic painter who approached faith as a profound emotional experience,” Orlando explained.
Anthony van Dyck, Francesco Orero Presented to the Dying Christ by Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Bernard of Clairvau (ca. 1626–27). Courtesy the Parish of San Michele di Pagana, Rapallo.
New Revelations
The curator noted that one common misconception about Van Dyck’s time in Italy is that he mostly remained in Genoa. New research for this exhibition has revealed that, in fact, he traveled across the country extensively and almost certainly stayed in Naples, a trip that had only previously been tentatively hypothesized.
In 1624, Van Dyck found himself quarantined in Palermo, Sicily to avoid a particularly aggressive plague. He began painting the city’s plague saint St. Rosalia, and she can be seen in one 1624-25 canvas on loan from the Wellington Collection in London.
Anthony van Dyck, Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague–Stricken of Palermo (1624–25). Courtesy of Historic England Archive.
Other highlights include (ca. 1619–20) from the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, (1637) from the Louvre in Paris, and (1640) from Madrid’s esteemed Prado collection.
Van Dyck moved to London in 1632, where he immediately became a favorite of King Charles I, an avid patron of the arts, and a local sensation. The artist is credited with revolutionizing English portraiture with his elegant and psychologically rich style. He died at the age of 42 in 1641.
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
