Van Dyck began his artistic career at a very early age; in 1615 he opened his own studio in Antwerp and within just t
hree years had become a member of the guild of painters and an assistant of Rubens. The works of this early period, such as \i Wild Boar Hunt\i0 , (1617-18, Munich, Alte Pinakothek) or \i Saint Martin and the Beggar\i0 , (1621, Saventhem Church), show th
e strong influence of the Ruben's art. From 1621 to 1627 he was in Italy, and spent most of his time in Genoa though he also visited Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice, and Palermo. This gave the artist an opportunity to study the great works of the Italian
Renaissance which he reproduced in a notebook of sketches, now in the British Museum in London. The pictures he painted during his stay in Italy show the particularly strong influence of Titian, evident in the use of a palette of soft and mellow tones a
nd elegant compositions. In addition to numerous religious works, like \i Madonna of the Rosary\i0 , Palermo, oratory of the Rosario, van Dyck painted a series of portraits of the Genoese aristocracy, such as \i Portrait of Marchese Caterina Durazzo\i0 ,
(Genoa, Palazzo Reale), which show that his style had reached its full maturity. On his return to the Netherlands, he was appointed court painter by Archduchess Isabella and painted mostly portraits and altarpieces, like the \i Ecstasy of Saint Augustin
e\i0 , 1628, Antwerp, church of St. Augustine. Most remarkable among the pictures of mythological subjects is his masterpiece \i Rinaldo and Armida\i0 (ca. 1630-31, Paris, Louvre), whose smoothness of execution seems to foreshadow the rococo style. In 1
632 he moved to England, where he worked as court painter to Charles I and was given a knighthood. Here the artist painted a large number of portraits that provide an important record of the world of the English aristocracy in the first half of the seven
teenth century and influenced the great English portraitists of the eighteenth century, Gainsborough and Reynolds. He portrayed his subjects in sumptuous clothing, and set against landscapes painted in luminous tones. The most famous of these pictures ar
e the \i Portraits of Charles I\i0 (London, National Gallery; Paris, Louvre; and Madrid, Prado).
