Sebastiaen Vrancx work location Antwerp
Life
Sebastiaen Vrancx was baptized on 22 January 1573 in the St James Church in Antwerp.  His father Jan was a merchant.  His mother was Barbara Coutereau.He was an apprentice in the workshop of Adam van Noort, who was also the master of other prominent Antwerp painters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens and Hendrick van Balen.  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.He commenced his career in Antwerp and gained the recognition of his fellow artists. He was particularly esteemed as a painter of battle scenes and Peter Paul Rubens is known to have owned a battle scene by the artist.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.
place of work office location employment site workplace job site