Pater Familias

Theories, observations, and articles, by Philip Schaefer · All posts · Categories

ANALYZING A VAN DYCK PORTRAIT.

April 3, 2011 · Uncategorized

ANALYZING A VAN DYCK PORTRAIT. Annalisa, knowing how interested I am in how artist achieve their effects, sent me a link to a post on James Gurney’s blog for April 3, 2011, captioned Van Dyck’s Little Masterpiece. The post analyzes some of the techniques that Van Dyck used in painting a portrait of which he was proud (he carried it with him all is life to show what he could do.) Annalisa called my attention to the comment that “Softness takes conscious, deliberate effort…. ” and noted that she enjoys trying to achieve soft effects in her paintings. The national Gallery website (link here) lets you zoom in to the painting.