View source for Gaspar de Crayer

{{Short description|Flemish painter (1584–1669)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
[[File:Anthony van Dyck - Portrait of the Painter Gaspar de Crayer.jpg|thumb|220px|''Gaspar de Crayer'' by [[Anthony van Dyck|van Dyck]]]]
'''Gaspar de Crayer''' or '''Jasper de Crayer'''<ref>Name variations: Caspar de Crayer and Gaspard de Crayer</ref> (18 November 1584 &ndash; 27 January 1669) was a Flemish painter known for his many [[Counter-Reformation]] [[altarpiece]]s and portraits.  He was a court painter to the governors of the [[Southern Netherlands]] and worked in the principal cities of Flanders where he helped spread the [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]] style.<ref name=rkd>[https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/19021 Gaspar de Crayer] at the [[Netherlands Institute for Art History]]</ref><ref name=ox>Hans Vlieghe. "Crayer, Gaspar de." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online [[Oxford University Press]], Web 21 February 2017.</ref>

==Life==
Gaspar de Crayer was born in [[Antwerp]] as the son of Gaspard de Crayer the Elder, a decorative painter, illuminator and art dealer.<ref name=maere>[http://www.jandemaere.com/Files/2_1_flemish_Pages/2_1_25b.html Gaspard de Crayer, ''Caritas Romana''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040438/http://www.jandemaere.com/Files/2_1_flemish_Pages/2_1_25b.html |date=4 March 2016 }} at Gallerie Jan de Maere</ref> His mother Christina van Abshoven or Apshoven descended from a [[Van Apshoven family|family of painters]] who at the time enjoyed some fame, but whose work is barely known now.<ref name=okv>[https://www.okv.be/sites/default/files/2020-09/Gaspar%20de%20Crayer%20-%20In%20de%20schaduw%20van%20Rubens%20en%20Van%20Dyck%20.pdf Gaspar de Crayer In de schaduw van Rubens en Van Dyck] at OKV {{in lang|nl}}</ref> Rather than stay in Antwerp, he looked for opportunity in the capital Brussels.  He is believed to have studied under [[Raphael Coxie]], the court painter of the governors of the [[Spanish Netherlands]] [[Albert VII, Archduke of Austria]] and [[Isabella Clara Eugenia]].<ref name=bar>[https://barokinvlaanderen.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/en/artist/gaspar-de-crayer Matthias Depoorter, ''Gaspar de Crayer''] at barokinvlaanderen</ref> He became a master in the Brussels [[Guild of Saint Luke]] in 1607.  He was a dean of the Guild from 1611 to 1616 and was a member of the Brussels city council in 1626–1627.  He remained in Brussels until 1664.<ref name=ox/>
[[File:Gaspar de Crayer - Rinaldo and Armida.jpg|thumb|260px|left|''Rinaldo and Armida'']]

De Crayer's early works include portraits of the kings of Spain and the Spanish governors and officials who were stationed in the Spanish Netherlands as well as members of the Brussels city council. For example, the ''[[:File:Gaspar de Crayer - Equestrian portrait of Don Diego Messia Felipe de Guzmán, Marques de Léganes.jpg|Equestrian portrait of Don Diego Messia Felipe de Guzmán]]'' ([[Kunsthistorisches Museum]], Vienna) was painted by de Crayer in 1627–1628. In addition, from the beginning of his career de Crayer received orders for altarpieces to decorate several churches and monasteries around Brussels.  Although he was still living in Brussels, he played a leading role in the coordination of the monumental decorations for the [[Joyous Entry]] of [[Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria]], brother of King [[Philip IV of Spain]], as governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1635.   He created one of the two triumphal arches on the Vrijdagmarkt in Ghent, depicting scenes of the illustrious deeds of Ferdinand's Ghent-born great-grandfather [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]].<ref name=okv/> The Cardinal-Infante  made him his first court painter in the same year. He later worked as a court painter for the [[Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria]] who became governor in 1647.<ref name=Prado>[https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/artista/crayer-gaspar-de/513cc623-a657-4361-ae7e-8e4f1d413bf8 Pérez Preciado, J. J., "Crayer, Gaspar de]" at the [[Museo del Prado]] {{in lang|es}}</ref>
[[File:Felipe IV; Rey de España.jpg|thumb|215px|''Philip IV with court dwarf'']]

He operated a large workshop which produced portraits of members of the leading classes in Brussels as well as a large number of altarpieces for churches in Flanders and abroad including Germany and Spain.  He also received in 1647 a commission from Dutch architect [[Jacob van Campen]] to assist in the decoration of [[Huis ten Bosch]], the palace of [[stadtholder]] [[Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange|Frederick Henry]] in [[The Hague]].  De Crayer also completed commissions for Spanish patrons, the largest of which was a commission for at least 17 images of saints, possibly destined for the Monastery of St Francis in [[Burgos]]. Another important foreign patron was the German Catholic ruler [[Maximilian Willibald of Waldburg-Wolfegg]], for whom de Crayer executed several large altarpieces for the churches in the Palatinate between 1658 and 1666.<ref name=ox/>

Even while he gained a high social position in Brussels, de Crayer did not lose contact with his hometown Antwerp. He was in particular a friend and business associate of the art dealer [[Matthijs Musson]] (c.&nbsp;1600–78), who was also his patron and arranged commissions for him.<ref name=ox/> He married Catharina Janssens on 17 February 1613.<ref name=maere/>
[[File:Gaspar de Crayer - Caritas Romana.jpg|thumb|left|288px|[[Caritas Romana (de Crayer, 1645)|''Caritas Romana'']], 1645]]

He worked regularly in [[Ghent]] where he produced altarpieces.<ref name=ox/> He had previously established a reputation in Ghent: before 1620 he had regularly completed commissions for various religious and secular institutions of the city and he been given an important role in the execution of the monumental decorations for the [[Joyous Entry]] into Ghent of [[Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria]] in 1635.  In 1664 he finally moved to this city where he spent the last five years of his life.<ref name=bar/> In spite of his age, he received numerous important orders for altarpieces. Among the numerous paintings made in Ghent stand out the ''Martyrdom of St. Blas'' and the works that are in the [[St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent|Saint Bavo's Cathedral]].<ref name=ox/>

In his large workshop de Crayer trained between 1610 and 1661 a large number of pupils, including presumably [[Jan van Cleve (III)]], [[Anselm van Hulle]] and François Monnaville.<ref name=rkd/>

Gaspar de Crayer died on 27 January 1669 in Ghent.<ref name=rkd/>

==Work==
[[File:Gaspar de Crayer - The judgement of Solomon.jpg|thumb|292px|''The Judgement of Solomon'']]

Gaspar de Crayer mainly painted portraits of the elite and Counter Reformation altarpieces for local and foreign churches.  His early work is in the trend of the 16th century tradition of artists such as [[Maerten de Vos]] of Antwerp and [[Hendrik de Clerck]] of Brussels who worked in a late [[Mannerism|Mannerist]] style.  Typical for this style is the unnatural perspective and the crowding of long wooden figures in the foreground.<ref name=ox/> From 1618 he came under the influence of Rubens.  The level of borrowing of motifs from Rubens suggests that he had some form of contract with the workshop of Rubens since he could only have seen some models there.<ref name=bar/> The influence is shown in a more monumental rendering of figures in more balanced compositions.<ref name=ox/> Until 1630, de Crayer followed the style of Rubens' [[Classicism|Classicist]] period.  The work ''Mocking of Job'' (1619, [[Musée des Augustins]], [[Toulouse]]) is an example of this style.
[[File:Gaspar de Crayer - Saint Benedict receiving Totila, King of the Ostrogoths.jpg|thumb|370px|left|''[[Benedict of Nursia|Saint Benedict]] receiving [[Totila]], King of the Ostrogoths'']]

After 1630 his work was more influenced by [[Anthony van Dyck]], whose emotionally charged interpretation of religious subjects appealed to his sensibility.<ref name=bar/> His work became more dynamic in conception.  He also was influenced by van Dyck's work, which especially in his later work lapsed into pathos.<ref name=okv/>

Between 1638 and 1648 de Crayer's compositions displayed a lighter tonality and his figures became softer and more sentimental in appearance.<ref name=bar/> This may have been under the influence of the later work of Rubens.<ref name=ox/> His work also showed a trace of the Venetian 16th-century masters, in particular the art of [[Titian]] and [[Paolo Veronese]].<ref name=bar/> De Crayer, however, never visited Italy and he mainly knew the work through the prints of [[Agostino Carracci]].

In the 1650s and 1660s, de Crayer's art became more emotionally loaded and more dramatic through the deployment of a relatively large number of figures at various planes within the picture space. In the last period, a lot of work produced by his workshop surfaced and his rich and warm palette became increasingly dull.<ref name=ox/>
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==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="210">
File:Gaspar de Crayer - The Descent from the Cross.jpg|''The [[Descent from the Cross|Descent]] from the Cross''
File:Gaspar de Crayer - Virgin with child and saints Maria Magdalen, Cecilia, Dorothea, Catharina and Augustine.jpg|''Virgin with child and saints [[Mary Magdalene]], [[Saint Cecilia|Cecilia]], [[Dorothea of Caesarea|Dorothea]], [[Catherine of Alexandria|Catherine]] and [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]]''
File:Gaspar de Crayer - Lamentation of Christ.jpg|''[[Lamentation of Christ|Lamentation]] of Christ''
</gallery>

==Notes==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==
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{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crayer, Gaspar de}}
[[Category:Flemish Baroque painters]]
[[Category:Flemish portrait painters]]
[[Category:Flemish history painters]]
[[Category:Painters from Antwerp]]
[[Category:Painters from Brussels]]
[[Category:Flemish court painters]]
[[Category:1584 births]]
[[Category:1669 deaths]]