|
Heuvel, Antoon van den
(b Ghent, c. 1600; d Ghent, 5 Aug 1677). Flemish painter. In 1628, the year he became a master in the Ghent guild of painters, he declared that he had spent the previous ten years in Antwerp and Rome. He thereafter remained in Ghent, painting altarpieces for churches in the city and its surroundings. It is difficult to give an accurate definition of van den Heuvel’s style: he is erroneously considered to be one of the international Caravaggisti. His earlier work displays a preference for contrasting colours and strong lighting, with few transitional tones. But compared with his contemporary Jan Janssens, who is correctly called one of the Ghent Caravaggisti, van den Heuvel rarely displayed genuine Caravaggesque features in his work. In only one instance, the Instigation of the Rosary (1634; Nazareth, parish church), did he adopt one of Caravaggio’s motifs: from the Madonna of the Serpent (Rome, Gal. Borghese). Generally van den Heuvel’s linear compositions and bright treatment of light appear classical, closer to the works of the Carracci and their followers, which he must have encountered while in Rome. Van den Heuvel also borrowed motifs and compositions from such painters as Rubens and Gaspar de Crayer. His later work, painted between c. 1640 and 1650, is duller in colour and consequently seems less expressive.
|
|
There are more than 45,000 articles in The Grove Dictionary of Art.
To access the rest of this article, including the bibliography, subscribe to
www.groveart.com.
To find out more about this subject, click on a related article below and
subscribe to www.groveart.com
|
