How did Peter Paul Rubens influence Anthony van Dyck’s early paintings?

Peter Paul Rubens exerted a significant influence on the early career of Anthony van Dyck, who served as his collaborator and assistant in Antwerp.12

In his early figural compositions, van Dyck emulated Rubens’s melodramatic style, though he developed his own distinct approach. While Rubens utilized enamel-like glazes, van Dyck painted with a more direct, coarser texture, employing a darker and warmer color scale with more abrupt transitions between light and shadow. His early figures were also characterized by more angular gestures and less harmonious proportions compared to those of his mentor.1

The influence of Rubens is also evident in van Dyck’s portraiture. While his earliest portraits featured neutral backgrounds, he began incorporating props such as columns to enrich his settings under Rubens’s guidance. Furthermore, van Dyck adopted and adapted portraiture patterns previously formulated by Rubens, eventually establishing his own elegant and aristocratic style that became highly influential in its own right.123