Anthony Van Dyck

Sir Anthony Van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England.  He was born in March 22nd 1599 and died in December 9th 1641  He is most famous for his portraits of King Charles I of England and Scotland and his family and court.  But in these paintings that I'm going to talked about are not the paintings of King Charles and his family. 

 (Saint Ambrose and Emperor Theodosius)

(Virgin and Child with Saint Anthony of Padua)

The above paintings here, has a lot of objects in it.  But when our eyes first look at it, we fixated our eyes on a certain objects or colours.  The first painting is kind of leading to the middle.  We can see that everybody else in the paintings are looking to the middle and the painter (Anthony) is also giving a more saturated colour to the two people standing in the middle rather than giving a brighter colour to the rest.  Therefore the main focus are the two people arguing in the middle.  The same thing can be said for the second painting.  With such a darker and more natural colour on the background, our gaze immediately focus on the virgin holding the child.  And if we look carefully, there seems to be a yellowish glow near the head of the virgin and the child.