Nicolaes van Eyck

Nicolaas van Eyck or Nicolaes van Eyck (1617 in Antwerp – 1679 in Antwerp), was a Flemish painter of landscapes, equestrian and battle scenes, civil processions and portraits.

Nicolaas van Eyck was born in Antwerp as the son of the tailor Nicolaas van Eyck and Joanna Ros. He became a pupil in Antwerp of the prominent genre and history painter Theodoor Rombouts under whom he started to study in 1632.

He was a captain of a local schutterij and this may be a reason why he painted military scenes.

He was friends with the flower painter Jan Philip van Thielen, who had also been a pupil of Rombouts. Van Eyck was godfather to at least one of van Thielen's nine children.

He was the teacher of Pieter Hofman. His sons Nicolaas II and Jan Carel van Eyck became painters. Jan Carel was a student of Jan Erasmus Quellinus and spent time in Italy.

Nicolaas van Eyck is principally known for his landscapes with soldiers and horsemen engaged in battle or resting. He painted a number of compositions representing scenes of urban warfare and rebellion. Van Eyck further painted some genre scenes of village feasts and dancing farmers.

Van Eyck also painted civil processions, including a composition representing the big parade of the civil guard of Antwerp on the Meir. A Scene from a parade of the civil guard (Hospitalfield Arts) appears to be a fragment of a painting depicting a parade of the civil guard in Antwerp. The scene shows a demonstration of fire arms. A row of arquebusiers are discharging their rifles in the direction of a row of men standing in front of them. Clearly they were not using real bullets but only powder. Such displays appear to have been common in civil parades of that time as can be seen in the Ommeganck in Brussels on 31 May 1615 by Denis van Alsloot, which includes a similar scene.

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