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Virginia Commonwealth University

Contextualizing Anthony van Dyck's Iconography within the Emerging Traditions of Portraiture and Artists' Biography in the Early Modern Period

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck extended his preoccupation with portraiture into the printed medium by designing a body of portrait prints, posthumously compiled into a book entitled, the Iconography. This suite of images, organized and designed by Van Dyck and printed by workshop assistants between 1632 and 1644, is comprised of engraved and etched half-length portraits of contemporary European men and women of various professions and backgrounds, including artists, scholars, diplomats, and religious leaders. This thesis examines the artistic and literary context for Van Dyck’s Iconography, with a focus on the changing social and intellectual status of artists in northern Europe during the seventeenth century. It seeks to provide the scholarship on the Iconography with an understanding of how the portraits function as a collective group that enhanced the prestige of artists in the seventeenth century.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Arts
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Art History
Year dc:date.available
2014

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Nye, Casey
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Janna Israel

Subjects

dc:subject × 10

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • © The Author

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1615

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Commonwealth University
Base URL
scholarscompass.vcu.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Nye, Casey. Contextualizing Anthony van Dyck's Iconography within the Emerging Traditions of Portraiture and Artists' Biography in the Early Modern Period. Thesis thesis, 2014. https://doi.org/10.25772/MVXS-0F16