Sebastiaen Vrancx movement Flemish Baroque painting
Sebastiaen Vrancx, Sebastiaan Vrancx or Sebastian Vranckx (pronounced [ˈvrɑŋs]; 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.  He also created landscapes with mythological and allegorical scenes, scenes with robbers, village scenes and celebrations in cities. He was a gifted figure painter who was regularly invited to paint the staffage in compositions of fellow painters.  As an active member of a local chamber of rhetoric, he wrote comedies and a number of poems.  He was further captain of the Antwerp civil militia (schutterij).Architectural painting
Vrancx collaborated with the architectural painter Pieter Neefs the Elder.  He added staffage to Neefs' church interiors. An example is the Interior of the Jesuit church of Antwerp (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Neefs is considered to be a representative of the Antwerp school of architectural painting.  Typical for the style was the use of a rigid linear perspective which offered a view directly down the nave of the church.Vrancx produced himself architectural paintings of church interiors.  An example is the Interior of the Saint James Church in Antwerp (at Christie's on 14 April 2016, New York lot 108). 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. At the right a man holding a plumed hat and in lavender attire is leaning against the base of a column at right.  He is gazing directly at the viewer with bemused confidence. The figure may be a self-portrait as he bears a strong resemblance to Anthony van Dyck's portrait of the artist. This composition does not use the rigid linear perspective view directly down the nave of the church, which was common in the works of the church painters of the Antwerp school.
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