page_title: Daniel van den Dyck
section_title: Work
hierarchical_section_title: Daniel van den Dyck / Work
context_page_description: Daniel van den Dyck, known in Italy as Daniel Vandich was a Flemish painter, printmaker, architect and engineer. After training in Antwerp he left for Italy where he first worked in Venice and later became a court painter in Mantua. He was a versatile artist who created mythological and religious scenes, as well as portraits and flower-pieces.
context_section_description: Daniel van den Dyck was a versatile artist who created mythological and religious scenes, as well as portraits and flower-pieces. He also created prints after his own designs.  He often signed his works by his Italian name 'Daniele vanden Dyck'. Very few of his works have survived or been identified with certainty.
  One of his key works, a Martyrdom of St. Lawrence hangs in the Church of Madonna dell'Orto in Venice, which was frequented by the Flemish community residing in the Republic.  This work shows the influence of Rubens in its sensuality and that of Anthony van Dyck in the livid tonality and the smooth and thin application of the paint. He is known to have created more altarpieces as well as portraits during his stay in Venice.  Marco Boschini mentions in his Le ricche minere della pittura veneziana of 1674 a Portrait of three lawyers including Giovan Francesco Loredano (still alive) by van den Dyck as being kept at the Doge's Palace in Venice.
  Van den Dyck is also believed to have painted the frescos on the subject of Psyche in the "Villa Venier Contarini" in Mira, Veneto.
  A number of portraits have been attributed to van den Dyck.  His portrait style retains a Flemish painterly quality derived from his early training in Antwerp. His early style is also close to that of other painters active in Bergamo or Mantua such as Carlo Ceresa and Domenico Fetti to whom some of his portraits have been erroneously attributed in the past and vice versa. Already in his lifetime the liveliness of his portraits was praised. His portraiture is characterized by his ability to analyze reality, describe the physiognomic features of the character, without neglecting psychological analysis.
  Van den Dyck painted 13 flower pieces for the duke of Mantua's Gabinetto.  These works are considered lost.
  His graphic work is mainly distinguished by its cursive and quick character, which predates developments in the 17th century.  This is quite evident in his Deification of Aeneas by nymphs and cupids, which likely dates from his Mantuan period.  This work shows the classicist influences of Giulio Romano as well as the Flemish Baroque with its muscular and bearded hero Aeneas who is being submitted by the robust nymphs to a grooming before his elevation to godly status.  His print of a Bacchanal on the other hand shows the possible influence of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione who was also active in Mantua. A preliminary study for this print is kept at the British Museum.  The heavy use of the brush and the painterly quality of the landscape in the drawing also show a closeness to Castiglione.
caption: Venus and Cupids
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