beside the easel

Portrait of the painter Caspar de Crayer by Anthony Van Dyck , 1630 A contemporary of Rubens, Gaspar de Crayer was born in Antwerp on November 18, 1582. Crayer is interesting in that his style gradually evolved from his early career as a high-Renaissance Flemish artist to Baroque after being in contact with Rubens and his workshop. It is not clear the kind of working relationship they had, but one can easily see the grand scale and intricate compositions of Rubens that held an enormous influence on Crayer. Yet curiously Crayer paints his women with a distinctly Italian sensibility that is reminiscent of Titian, Veronese, and even Spanish artist Murillo. At any rate, judging by the brilliant portrait of him by Van Dyck above his company was well-received by and not seen as a competitor of Rubens nor Van Dyck. Alexander and Diogenes, early 1600's Crayer bathes the figures in an uncharacteristically Titianesque warm light. I like how Crayer uses body language to great effe...