Review by Choice Review
Blake presents a somewhat romanticized but captivating biography of Van Dyck, seen from a predominantly Anglo-Saxon perspective. There is little or no original archival research involved in this biography, which is largely based on the standard scholarly literature and published documentation on both Van Dyck and Rubens. Some themes touched on are highly speculative, including discussions of Van Dyck's psychology, sexual activities and preferences, and his personal attitudes toward the rich and the powerful he served. The problem lies mainly in the absence of abundant written sources and archival documentation, especially when compared to his contemporaries, in particular, Rubens. The author's subdivision of the book into three parts follows almost naturally out of Van Dyck's own biography: (1) his youth in Antwerp until 1619, (2) his intense contact with Italy to 1631, and (3) his final years as painter to the Royal court in England from 1632 to 1641. Each section is subdivided into a number of distinctly described theme sections, which makes both a systematic reading or a targeted access a pleasant experience. In sum, quite a dynamic biography of a major artist of the early modern period. General readers; undergraduates. ; Duke University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Famous for his so-called "swagger portraits" of 17th-century European noblemen, Van Dyck (1599-1641) is most often seen as a courtier interested only in flattering the rich and famous of the baroque era. For the artist's quadricentennial last year, British author Blake (Mind Over Medicine; Fat Man's Shadow) produced this more sympathetic life of the painter, now published in the U.S., recasting the relatively few facts that are known about the painter's life. The book is divided into three sections based on the artist's first name as it changed with his locale: early years in Antwerp as Antoon; apprentice years in Italy as Antonio; and finally England, where Van Dyck became Sir Anthony, a commercial and artistic success painting the Stuarts. Blake is not an art historian, and his book often goes out on speculative limbs, particularly in positing romantic relationships for Van Dyck with models, for which definitive documentation does not exist. He relies heavily on secondary sources, but chooses them well, making for a lively if sometimes overly romantic narrative of the artist among the fabulously wealthy and powerful, reaching a sad climax when Van Dyck dies (of what remains unknown) just as his young wife gives birth to their first child. The bibliography helpfully lists ISBNs whenever possible, and includes the address of Blake's personal Web site devoted to Van Dyck (www.vandyck.co.uk) as well as those of numerous sites where photos of the artist's work may be seen. Scholars, however, would be better served by Christopher Brown's less excitable study. 3 inserts of b&w reproductions. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
While there is no dearth of scholarly literature about the great Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck, there has been no recent attempt at a comprehensive English-language accounting of his life and art. Unfortunately, the need for an accessible and up-to-date synthesis has not been satisfied by Blake's mostly wrongheaded opus. Relying on a tenuous foundation of questionable psychological theorizing and little historical evidence, the author invents Van Dyck as a psychically wounded, mother-grieving, father-conflicted, sexually and religiously repressed genius. Having manufactured the artistic personality he requires, the novelist-author (e.g., Fat Man's Shadow) not unsurprisingly finds these personal qualities manifested within a significant portion of the artist's oeuvre. The poverty of the formal articulation of the works themselves, the inadequate appreciation of the crosscurrents of contemporary art and taste, the tendency to enlard with trivia, and the grossly inadequate illustrations all combine to make this an unessential work.--Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
