Sebastian Vrancx Biography
Sebastian Vrancx, a Flemish Baroque painter and draftsman, was born in Antwerp in 1573. He is known for his works depicting military scenes and battles. He studied painting in Antwerp in the workshop of the painter Adam Van Noort, also teacher of Peter Paul Rubens. In 1600, Vrancx moved to Italy where he traveled to Venice, Rome, and Naples to study the classics. In 1601 he returned to Antwerp, becoming vice-president of the Guild of St. Luke and then dean in 1612.
His art was initially influenced by that of Cornelis Floris de Vriendt and Cornelis Bos. During the Italian period, however, Vrancx was closer to the works of Paul Bril and Jan Brueghel the Elder, present in the same period in Rome.
His works depict articulated, moving, gesticulating figures dressed in colorful clothing, often surrounded by enormous trees and classical landscapes. The horizontal format was favored for his canvases and used a clear perspective structure in the representation. He is also known for reproducing small-scale military scenes.
From 1620, Vrancx dedicated most of his work to horses, abandoning the details of trees, which were the real protagonists of his works previously. In the last years of his artistic life, from 1625 to 1647, he returned to his predilection for landscape painting, giving more graceful and less strong notes to his works. His art was much copied and reproduced through engravings, especially by Pieter de Jode.
Sebastian Vrancx died in Antwerp in 1647.
