Lucas van Valckenborch

Lucas van Valckenborch or Lucas van Valckenborch the Elder (c. 1535 in Leuven – 2 February 1597 in Frankfurt am Main) was a Flemish painter, mainly known for his landscapes. He also made contributions to portrait painting, and allegorical and market scenes. Court painter to Archduke Matthias, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands in Brussels, he later migrated to Austria and then Germany, where he joined members of his extended family of artists who had moved there for religious reasons.

Life

Lucas van Valckenborch was born in Leuven in what would become one of the most prominent Flemish families of artists. Spanning three generations, 14 artists are recorded in the family of whom his older brother Marten the Elder, and the sons of the latter, Frederik van Valckenborch and Gillis van Valckenborch, were the most important personalities.

On 26 August 1560, he entered the painters' guild of Mechelen, Its artistic milieu was influential in the development of Lucas van Valckenborch, who learned the technique of watercolour and met the prominent painters Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1528-1569) and Hans Bol (1534-1593), who both played important roles in the development of landscape painting in the Low Countries. In 1570, the artist was in Aachen, where he met up again with his brother Marten. Here, the two brothers were also joined, for two years, by Hans Vredeman de Vries, a friend and fellow artist.

Portraits Archduke Matthias is said to have engaged Lucas van Valckenborch as his court painter for his skills as a portrait painter. Many of the works he produced for the Archduke were in fact portraits, including portraits of the Archduke and his wife Sibylle von Jülich-Cleve-Berg. These portraits were full-length portraits or bust format. He also painted several miniature portraits of the Archduke and his wife. It is clear that these portraits' role was to show the power of Archduke and to flatter his ego as he is depicted invariably in a regal and imposing position and dressed in the latest fashions. In the series, van Valckenborch particularly developed the tradition of art market scenes pioneered by Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer. He strived for a synthesis of still-life with landscape and genre painting. Georg Flegel also painted the food and luxurious tableware in two paintings of van Valckenborch depicting banquets (Silesian Museum and St Gilgen-Salzburg, H. Wiesenthal private collection).

Gallery