Sebastiaen Vrancx, Sebastiaan Vrancx or Sebastian Vranckx was a Flemish Baroque painter, draughtsman and designer of prints who is mainly known for his battle scenes, a genre that he pioneered in Netherlandish painting. He also created landscapes with mythological and allegorical scenes, scenes with robbers, village scenes and celebrations in cities. He was a gifted figure painter who was regularly invited to paint the staffage in compositions of fellow painters. As an active member of a local chamber of rhetoric, he wrote comedies and a number of poems. He was further captain of the Antwerp civil militia schutterij.
Sebastiaen Vrancx by Anthony van Dyck
Assault on a convoy
Outdoor banquet
Ice pleasure on the Scheldt in Antwerp
Flemish Baroque painting was a style of painting in the Southern Netherlands during Spanish control in the 16th and 17th centuries. The period roughly begins when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain regions to the south with the Spanish recapturing of Antwerp in 1585 and goes until about 1700, when Spanish Habsburg authority ended with the death of King Charles II. Antwerp, home to the prominent artists Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens, was the artistic nexus, while other notable cities include Brussels and Ghent.
Peter Paul Rubens, The Raising of the Cross, c. 1610–1611
Frans Hogenberg, the Calvinist Iconoclastic Riot of August 20, 1566 when many paintings and church decorations were destroyed and subsequently replaced by Late Northern Mannerist and Baroque artists.
Peter Paul Rubens and Frans Snyders, Prometheus Bound, 1611–12. Philadelphia Museum of Art. This painting is Flemish Baroque example of collaboration and specialization. Snyders, who specialized in animals, painted the eagle while Rubens painted the figure of Prometheus.
Frans Francken the Younger, Preziosenwand (Wall of Treasures), 1636. Kunsthistorischesmuseum, Vienna. This type of painting was one of the distinctly Flemish innovations that developed during the early 17th century.