Van Dyck’s prestige and critical fortune in Spanish treaties

Abstract

Unlike Rubens, van Dyck has been a marginal figure in Spanish art criticism even to the point of not holding commemorative exhibitions to celebrate his 400^th anniversary in 1999. Nevertheless, during the 17^th century in Spain his paintings were as admired by art writers as by art patrons, and his influence was actually greater than that of Rubens. This article proposes to demonstrate realities and omissions. The echo of Van Dyck’s art was just as widespread and important in Spain as in Flanders, Italy or England. A single collector, the marquis of Carpio, owned more paintings by the artist than Charles I of England. For Lázaro Díaz del Valle he was the “true phoenix of our century,” and Velázquez used van Dyck’s engravings as models for his elegant portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares.