RELATED WORKS | barocco
Marie Luise van Dyck
2018
Lena Dressed in Blue
Lena Dressed in Blue, oil on a cocave mirrored plexi dish, 110 cm, 2015
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In 1641 Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck painted a young girl in a blue dress holding an ostrich feather fan.
His Portrait of a Girl Dressed in Blue is one of the best-known child portraits of the 17th century, and it is on view in the Rijksmuseum “hall of fame” in Amsterdam. The painting's popularity in the Netherlands was enhanced by a 25-guilder bank note showing the girl's face, which circulated in a quantity of approximately 39 million in the years 1945–1953. We know nothing about her identity or her family, but her refined clothing, the doubled pearl necklace and the ostrich feather demonstrate a wealthy background. The child is portrayed in the custom of the day as a small adult lady. It is a delicate painting worked out in great detail, demon-strating Verspronck's refined style, with it barely visible brushstrokes. |
Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck, Portrait of a Girl Dressed in Blue, 1641
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Lena Dressed in Blue translates Verspronck's painting into the present, and into my personal world.
Since it is always a deep pleasure to paint a portrait of my daughter as a young girl (I have done so nearly 50 times in the past years), I decided to bid farewell to the 370-year-old Dutch girl. Nevertheless I copied the wonderful old-fashioned and rich clothing. The pose was changed slightly to fit the round shape and my wish to give the figure an impressive Baroque staging: Lena should walk into a round spotlight taking a posh step forward. |
Since the work is painted on a concave mirror dish, no photo can give an impression of how the work changes when the beholder passes by. The impression of the whole work is constantly changing as a result of permanently shifting distorted reflections of the space surrounding the dish. More, the painted figure seems to be animated as well, perhaps because our eye and brain cannot process the perception of an image deriving from a solid object in which parts change dynamically and others remain stable.
The concave mirror background produces spectacular grotesque reflections. The awe it produces resonates with the Baroque concept of the world as theatre and humankind as actors in a grand play.
The concave mirror background produces spectacular grotesque reflections. The awe it produces resonates with the Baroque concept of the world as theatre and humankind as actors in a grand play.
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In my study on paper shown at the left, I did not try to emulate Verspronck's painting technique and the muted colourfulness based on a soft brownish tone.
I enhanced and changed the blue tone of the dress and the background hue, and made the girl's face sweeter. My primary aim was to express the tenderness of the child in combination with a strong showing by my own means. |
JUDITH
2008
Judith, oil on canvas, 9 parts, 600 cm x 420 cm, 2008
Judith is the fulfilment of a childhood dream.
At the age of 16 I had the dream of making a large-scale old master-style painting once. Coming of age in Salzburg, a beautiful town in Austria with an amazing number of richly decorated baroque churches.
I was deeply impressed by their large and powerful altarpieces . The big-sized paintings tell their story with great expression, inner dramatic movement and rich colouring in great painterly perfection.
At the age of 16 I had the dream of making a large-scale old master-style painting once. Coming of age in Salzburg, a beautiful town in Austria with an amazing number of richly decorated baroque churches.
I was deeply impressed by their large and powerful altarpieces . The big-sized paintings tell their story with great expression, inner dramatic movement and rich colouring in great painterly perfection.
Cristoforo Allori, Judith and Maid Abra with head of Holofernes, 1610-1615
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Judith is a gigantic copy in my own personal painterly style of the relatively small religious painting
Judith and Holofernes of Italian Baroque painter Cristoforo Allori (1577 – 1621). The story of Judith and Holofernes is biblical. The beautiful Jewish widow Judith seduces and beheads the Babylonian military leader Holofernes saving her people in times of war. In my painting I have changed one important detail: Judith is not carrying the head of Holofernes, but her own. This gives the painting a different and ambiguous meaning. |
JUAN DE PAREJA
Juan de Pareja 5, oil on brushed aluminum, 30 x 30 cm, 2014 (detail)
The series 'Juan de Pareja' deals with the eponymous portrait the Spanish Baroque artist Diego Velázquez painted of his slave and painting assistant in 1650.
So far I could only fiinish a few paintings of this series, but I hope to do more in the future. In the end, there should be 30 small panels. This number worked very well for my Renaissance series and seems sufficient to achieve my intentions.
It's not just about the pleasure of repeatedly engaging with a wonderful and timeless masterpiece of art history, getting to know it even better, and having an intimate exchange. The desire to work again and again with one and the same motif under constant basic conditions (always the same section of the original is chosen, also the format and the painting ground remain the same) arises from an experience of inadequacy and incompleteness.
A single painting is often not enough, hardly done it is already outdated. Perceptions and sensations change quickly, not least through the experience of seeing and painting.
So far I could only fiinish a few paintings of this series, but I hope to do more in the future. In the end, there should be 30 small panels. This number worked very well for my Renaissance series and seems sufficient to achieve my intentions.
It's not just about the pleasure of repeatedly engaging with a wonderful and timeless masterpiece of art history, getting to know it even better, and having an intimate exchange. The desire to work again and again with one and the same motif under constant basic conditions (always the same section of the original is chosen, also the format and the painting ground remain the same) arises from an experience of inadequacy and incompleteness.
A single painting is often not enough, hardly done it is already outdated. Perceptions and sensations change quickly, not least through the experience of seeing and painting.
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In daily life, only one image, for example of a face, is usually stored as a survival strategy against overstimulation and overinformation. It is used for quick recognition and remains unchanged over a surprisingly long period of time even with people who are close to you. There are then always moments that lead to an update. For example, if you have not met a person for a long period of time, you see them again more consciously and update the inner image that you have stored for quick and daily recognition.
If you resolve to see a person in a new and curious way every time you meet them, you will make amazing discoveries and be surprised at how many faces a face can show and how strange it can sometimes seem.
For a painter, attentive seeing and vigilant processing and interpretation of visual information is the basis and prerequisite of his work.
So I deal with a motif over and over again not because I am unimaginative, but because I want to account for my perceptions and sensations that I make during the viewing at the time. The experiences that I make then ultimately lead to the fact that I see the motif anew and the process restarts.
If you resolve to see a person in a new and curious way every time you meet them, you will make amazing discoveries and be surprised at how many faces a face can show and how strange it can sometimes seem.
For a painter, attentive seeing and vigilant processing and interpretation of visual information is the basis and prerequisite of his work.
So I deal with a motif over and over again not because I am unimaginative, but because I want to account for my perceptions and sensations that I make during the viewing at the time. The experiences that I make then ultimately lead to the fact that I see the motif anew and the process restarts.
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Juan De Pareja accompanied Velázquez on his second trip to Italy in 1649.
The artist painted the portrait of his assistant to show his mastery in order to recommend himself for a portrait of the pope (and he actually received the commission from Innocent X a little later). The painting was exposed in the Pantheon of Rome in March 1650 during the festivities in honor of the Patron of the Virtuosos of the Pantheon, which Velázquez had recently joined. A litte later, while still in Rome, Velázquez granted de Pareja a letter of freedom, which would come into effect after four years. From then on until his death in Madrid de Pareja worked as an independent painter. |
Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Juan de Pareja, 1649-50 (Metropolitan Museum of New York)