Sanguine/Bloedrood. Luc Tuymans on Baroque
(c)image: KMSKA, Antwerp; © www.lukasweb.be - Art in Flanders vzw, foto Hugo Maertens
A bony man is standing with his neck toward us. This is not in the least a classic portrait; it is a study, a tronie (mug). The brushwork is effective; it reveals a power of sharp observation and much refinement. Notice the subtle shades of greys, ochres and browns. Transparent layers of paint alternate with opaque parts and accents reflecting the light.
It is not the identity of the model that is important to Van Dyck, but rather the pose and the play of the light on his face and neck muscles. The unusual point of view from which we look at the man – in lost profile – gives him a mysterious and timeless character. Tronies are initially not painted for an audience or a buyer – they are primarily used as a means to achieve an intended end result – but art lovers and traders, however, soon think otherwise.
Van Dyck makes the study in around 1618-20, when he works as a young artist in the studio of Peter Paul Rubens. The tronie is the starting point for a kneeling figure who offers Christ a reed as a staff, at the bottom right of the The Crowning with Thorns (Madrid, Museo del Prado) and on a Crowning with Thorns (formerly Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum) that did not survive the Second World War. The character in the large format, however, is half naked and wears a headband instead of a collar. The pose of the other characters in these two works is tried out by Van Dyck in several other tronies.
Text: Nico Van Hout, 2018