The Vision of the Blessed Hermann Joseph

The Vision of the Blessed Hermann Joseph shows an episode from the life of this Premonstratensian canon from the Cologne region, to whom tradition attributes several visions of the Virgin Mary. In the moment Van Dyck chooses, the Virgin joins Hermann in a mystical marriage and gives him the name 'Joseph', in reference to Saint Joseph, Mary's spouse. It is an image of intimate devotion, in which the language of spiritual espousal becomes a calm gesture rather than a display of miracles.

The painting dates from around 1629-1630 and was made for a chapel in Saint Ignatius Church in Antwerp, belonging to the city's Jesuit sodality. Van Dyck had joined that sodality in 1628 and received several commissions from it, so the work belongs to a group of religious paintings made for the Jesuit milieu of Antwerp. It now hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Formally, the picture sits within the orbit of Rubens, with whom Van Dyck worked as assistant and pupil after returning to Antwerp in 1627, following eight years in Italy. Its resemblance has been noted to The Vision of Saint Francis Xavier by Gerard Seghers and to Rubens's Saint Teresa of Ávila's Vision of the Holy Spirit, which places it within a genre of mystical visions popular in Antwerp at the time. Van Dyck arranges the scene with soft light and closely interlocked figures, letting the supernatural character of the moment emerge with restraint.

The work illustrates well Van Dyck's move from Rubens's workshop toward a more personal style, and shows how Flemish Baroque religious art adapted devotional themes to the tastes of its patrons.

Painter

Anthony van Dyck

Date

1629

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

160 × 128 cm

Museum

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Genre

religious art

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