Lucas Franchoys the Younger - portrait of Gerard van Opstal with ivory sculpture

Gerard van Opstal or Gérard van Opstal (1594 or 1597,

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 ...

– 1668,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

), was a

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Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

sculptor mainly active in Paris. He was known for his low-relief friezes with classical mythological themes and his expertise in carving ivory reliefs.Cynthia Lawrence. "Opstal, Gerard van."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 1 Feb. 2014

Life

He was born in 1594 or 1597 in Brussels or Antwerp as the son of Anton van Opstal. He was trained around 1630 by Niklaas Diodone.
/ref> He became master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1635 and had a registered pupil there in 1641. He was a son-in-law of the Antwerp sculptor Johannes van Mildert.Gerard van Opstal
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 ...

When his father-in-law died, he was contracted by the local city magistrates to complete the sculpture of Christ for the Calvary group on the Falconplein (Falcon square) in Antwerp. He moved to Paris before 1648, presumably at the explicit invitation of

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...

. Here he became one of the founders of France's

Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (; ) was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abolished in 1793 during the French Revolution. I ...

. Van Opstal was awarded the title 'sculpteur des batiments du roi' (Sculptor of the king's buildings) in 1651. Despite these distinctions, the artist complained that since

Charles le Brun Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...

was against him he was unable to obtain any royal commissions. He is particularly important for having brought a legal case in 1667 against the widow of a patron, Duchemin, intendant to Mademoiselle d'Orléans, for nonpayment of a commission dating from 1658. This case was based on the argument that sculpture was to be regarded as a liberal art rather than a craft and that therefore the rules regarding payments applicable to the liberal arts should be applied to the payments for sculptures. In 1667 van Opstal delivered a conférence at the Académie royale on the ''

Laocoön Laocoön (; , , gen.: ) is a figure in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology and the Epic Cycle. Laocoön is a Troy, Trojan priest. He and his two young sons are attacked by giant serpents sent by the gods when Laocoön argued against bri ...

''. In his presentation van Opstal argued that artists should go as far as possible in the study of the Laocoön both to understand the medical causes for the symptoms demonstrated by the bodies but also to learn how to represent violent movement of bodies in a dignified manner. His son Louis van Opstal also became a sculptor.

Work

Van Opstal was particularly skilled in the carving of low-relief friezes with classical mythological themes. He worked not only in stone and marble, but was also an expert in carving ivory reliefs. His ivory reliefs were widely admired and collected by his contemporaries and 17 of them were in the collection of king

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

. His style combined elements of Roman sarcophagi, the Renaissance, the Baroque style of

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...

and Francois Duquesnoy and the emerging French classical style. He was known for his sculptures at the

Porte Saint-Antoine The Porte Saint-Antoine () was one of the gates of Paris. There were two gates named the Porte Saint-Antoine, both now demolished, of which the best known was that guarded by the Bastille, on the site now occupied by the start of the Rue de la B ...

in Paris, made in 1670 in honour of Louis XIV's 10th marriage anniversary. Gerard Van Opstal created three sculptures personifying France, Spain and Hymen, to be placed in niches. The gate was demolished in 1778. The

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

holds very delicate ivory sculptures of

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...

by his hand.Sculptures by Gerard Van Opstal at the Louvres
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Opstal, Gerard van 1590s births 1668 deaths Flemish Baroque sculptors Artists from Antwerp Painters from Antwerp Artists from Brussels Members of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture Ivory carvers Expatriates from the Holy Roman Empire in France