Gaspar van Eyck - Mediterranean Coast Scene

Gaspar or Casper van Eyck (bapt. 6 February 1613, in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

– before December 1674, in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

) was a Flemish painter of marine subjects and sea-fights. He worked in Antwerp and spent some time working in Genoa and Madrid.Casper van Eyck
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Life

Van Eyck was born in Antwerp as the son of the tailor Nicolaas van Eyck, originally from the

Prince-Bishopric of Liège The Prince-Bishopric of Liège or Principality of Liège was a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was situated for the most part in present-day Belgium. It was an Imperial Estate, so the bishop of Liège, as ...

, and Joanna Ros. He was baptized on 6 February 1613. He had a sister and three brothers, of whom

Nicolaas Nicolaas is the Dutch equivalent of the masculine given name Nicholas. Before the 19th century the name was also written Nicolaes, while Nikolaas is an uncommon variant spelling. Most people with the name use a short form in daily life, like ''Cla ...

became a painter of equestrian and battle scenes, landscapes and portraits. He was the uncle of the landscape painter Jan Carel van Eyck.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool'', Antwerpen, 1883, p. 1013-1014 He was registered at Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of the prominent marine painter

Andries van Eertvelt Andries van Eertvelt (1590–1652), was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver who was one of the first Flemish artists to specialize in marine art. Several of his pupils also became prominent marine artists.Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, ''De Liggeren en andere Historische Archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, onder Zinkspreuk: "Wy Jonsten Versaemt" afgeschreven en bemerkt door Ph. Rombouts en Th. Van Lerius, Advokaet, onder de bescherming van den raed van bestuer der koninklyke Akademie van beeldende Kunsten, van gezegde Stad''
Volume 1, Antwerp, 1872, p. 607 Van Eyck became a master in the Guild of St. Luke in the guild year 1632–1633.Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, ''De Liggeren en andere Historische Archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, onder Zinkspreuk: "Wy Jonsten Versaemt" afgeschreven en bemerkt door Ph. Rombouts en Th. Van Lerius, Advokaet, onder de bescherming van den raed van bestuer der koninklyke Akademie van beeldende Kunsten, van gezegde Stad''
Volume 2, Antwerp, 1872, pp. 35, 43 He traveled in 1632 to

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, where he collaborated with the Flemish painter and art dealer

Cornelis de Wael Cornelis de Wael (Antwerp, 1592 – Rome, 1667) was a Flemish painter, engraver and merchant who was primarily active in Genoa in Italy. He is known for his genre paintings, battle scenes, history paintings and still lifes. Through his art wo ...

. De Wael and his brother

Lucas Lucas or LUCAS may refer to: People * Lucas (surname) * Lucas (given name) Arts and entertainment * Luca Family Singers, or the Lucas, a 19th-century African-American singing group * Lucas, a 1960s Swedish pop group formed by Janne Lucas Perss ...

had established a workshop in Genoa in 1628 which had become the centre of the colony of Flemish artists who resided in or passed through the city. These Flemish artists could take advantage of the work and artistic activity that the brothers' workshop attracted.Alison Stoesser, ''Lucas and Cornelis de Wael: Flemish artists in Antwerp, Genoa and Rome in the seventeenth century'', vol. 1: Text, unpublished doctoral dissertation

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * "008", a fictional 00 Agent In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (pronounced "Double O") is a field agent who ho ...

/ref> Van Eyck's master Andries van Eertvelt had also worked in Genoa with the de Wael brothers in the period from 1628 to 1630.Andries van Eertvelt
at the

He was in Madrid in 1649 and 1650 where he was briefly working for the court. He was there likely with the Flemish painter

Giovanni di Filippo del Campo Jean Ducamps, Giovanni di Filippo del Campo or Giovanni del Campo (1600, CambraiGiovanni del Campo
at the N ...

with whom he collaborated on paintings.Pérez Preciado, J. J. en E.M.N.P., Madrid, 2006, tomo III, p. 1026
He was back in Antwerp in 1656 and then moved to Brussels the same year. Here he remained until his death in 1673. He is believed to have suffered from mental illness and his brother Hendrick, who was a clergyman, was his guardian after the death of their parents.

Work

Gaspar van Eyck - Naval Battle between Turks and Maltese

Van Eyck was a marine specialist. His paintings comprise the whole range of marine painting including marine battles, storms, shipwrecks, views of ships in rivers, coastal waters and ports, etc. He painted various types of ships, including Turkish galleys with Turkish figures on them.

Het Gulden Cabinet or ''The Golden Cabinet of the Noble Liberal Art of Painting'' is a book by the 17th-century Flemish notary and ''Chamber of rhetoric, rederijker'' Cornelis de Bie. It was published in Antwerp. Written in the Dutch language, it contains artist ...

, p. 367, 1660,

Cornelis de Bie Cornelis de Bie (10 February 1627 – ) was a Flemish '' rederijker'', poet, jurist and minor politician from Lier. He is the author of about 64 works, mostly comedies. He is known internationally today for his biographical sketches of Flemish ...

He worked in the Flemish mannerist tradition of his master Andries van Eertvelt.Gaspar van Eyc, ''Mediterranean Coast Scene''
at the Maritime Museum His paintings are typically small-sized with tiny figures engaging in diverse actions and poses. Air and water acquire in his works a blurred and transparent quality, thus creating the impression that the works are unfinished. A closer view of his paintings shows the delicacy of the representation. Van Eyck worked closely with

Giovanni di Filippo del Campo Jean Ducamps, Giovanni di Filippo del Campo or Giovanni del Campo (1600, CambraiGiovanni del Campo
at the N ...

, who added the figures to his marines. While in Spain, van Eyck and del Campo worked for Flemish collectors based in Madrid, such as the Duke of Aarschot, who generously sponsored his work, and contributed to the distribution of his paintings in Spain. Three pictures by him are in the

Museo del Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...

. They did not enter the royal collection until the 18th century, through the collection of Charles IV. At least two of them are dated 1649, suggesting a presence of his work in Spain since the 17th century. In these three canvases he shows his knowledge of southern European painting, both in the Italianization of some details and in certain loans from the work of

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in I ...

and hints of the ''Battle of Ostia'' by Raphael. These traits are visible in the ''Naval Battle between Turks and Maltese''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eyck, Gaspar 1613 births 1674 deaths Flemish Baroque painters Flemish marine artists Painters from Antwerp