ADFAS talk: Van Dyck - The Ultimate Spin Doctor

Jacqui Ansell speaks on "Fit for a King: Van Dyck - The Ultimate Spin Doctor"

Had his older brother Henry not died in 1612, Charles I would never have been King. Had Van Dyck not arrived at the Stuart Court the stiff body language of Jacobean portraiture may never have been enlivened by the introduction of Renaissance values, giving rise to the splendour of Baroque. Van Dyck transformed the awkward and ungainly Charles; through his portraits the tiny King (and his even tinier wife) seemed to grow in stature. Van Dyck’s male sitters exuded elegance, and with his depiction of sumptuous satins and shimmering silks he was hailed as ‘the first that ‘ere put ‘ladies’ dress into a careless romance’.

Jacqui Ansell is a Senior Lecturer at Christie’s Education, tutoring online and face-to-face courses. She read History of Art and Theory at the University of Essex before going on to gain an MA in History of Dress from the Courtauld Institute.  Formerly an Education Officer at the National Gallery, London, and a tutor and writer for the Open University, she lectures for the Art Society and has devised and delivered many short courses for the National Gallery and Wallace Collections. She lectures on aspects of art history and dress history 1450-1950 (with particular interest in portraiture). Specialist research and publications focus on European Courtly Cultures, The Grand Tour and Traditional Welsh Costume.