Sebastiaen Vrancx
Sebastiaen Vrancx[a] (pronounced [səbɑstiˈjaːɱ ˈvrɑŋks]; before 22 January 1573 – 19 May 1647) was a Flemish Baroque painter, draughtsman and designer of prints who is mainly known for his battle scenes, a genre that he pioneered in Netherlandish painting.
It is believed that after finishing his apprenticeship, the artist visited Italy as he only became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1600.
The diversity and high positions held by the Confrerie's membership offered him a good opportunity to meet with potential patrons.
The pupils of Vrancx included Peter Snayers who became a leading battle painter and Balthasar Courtois, whose work is virtually unknown.
In a letter of 1634, Jan Brueghel the Younger wrote to his business partner in Seville that: 'Vrancx has plenty to do but refuses to employ studio assistants, which means that work takes a long time.
[6] Sebastiaen Vrancx is now mainly known for his battle scenes, this was possibly inspired by him being a member of the citizens guard and the fencers guild since 1613.
His experience as an officer and captain of the Antwerp civil militia may have played a role in his interest in developing this genre.
His first-hand experience in military matters likely inspired his treatment of the subject and supported his skill in the depiction of cavalry engagements and battles of the Eighty Years' War.
[1] In his mature later period from the 1630s onwards his compositions were characterized by more attenuated and pearly tonalities and a less compact but more dynamic execution of the trees.
The subject took its inspiration from an event that occurred on 5 February 1600 when an overly-confident young French commander by the name of Pierre de Bréauté was challenged to a duel by Spanish Cavalry Lieutenant Gerard van Houwelingen, known by his nickname Lekkerbeetje, after he supposedly claimed his own horsemen better than the Spaniard's.
[11] Vrancx had various followers in the southern Netherlands including Pieter Meulener, Jacques van der Wijen and Adam Frans van der Meulen, who was a pupil of Peter Snayers (a pupil of Vrancx) and later moved to France.
Spring shows an elegant boating party engaged in courtly love and peasants tending gardens, herding sheep and bleaching cloth.
Summer offers a panoramic view of labourers at work, picnicking and bathing in a nearby pond during the harvest.
Autumn is set in a farm courtyard where workers are busy picking apples and delivering bags full of harvested grapes to be pressed.
Winter is set in a snow-blanketed hamlet on the outskirts of a walled city, with carnival revellers and ice skaters on a frozen moat.
[6] Sebastiaen Vrancx started his career in Italy by painting Mannerist cabinet-sized Biblical scenes that are reminiscent of Paul Bril and Jan Brueghel the Elder.
Some scenes depicted masked persons and may have been based on his experience as a writer for, and actor in, plays produced by the chamber of rhetoric.
The nocturnal ambiance is made palpable with naturalistic and keenly observed scenes such as the two cats in the centre shown as mere silhouettes and about to attack each other.
The composition demonstrates his attention for the attire of the figures, an interest also reflected in Vrancx' designs for a series of prints by Pieter de Jode I, which depict the dresses of various countries known as the Variarum Gentium Ornatus.
Vrancx' composition depicts the lofty, light-filled interior of the Saint James Church in Antwerp, where a priest is giving a sermon to the masses while elegantly dressed onlookers walk around the aisle.
He used a predominantly neutral palette to which he added carefully placed touches of cardinal red to bold effect, from the case of the hourglass perched on the priest's pulpit to the brilliant cape and stockings of the gentleman in the central foreground who serves as the painting's visual anchor.
