Flemish Artists | Sitemap

Peter Paul Rubens🎨 | Old Woman and Boy with Candles, 1616-1617

Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century, gradually becoming distinct from the painting of the rest of the Low Countries, especially the modern Netherlands.

In the early period, up to about 1520, the painting of the whole area is (especially in the Anglophone world) typically considered as a whole, as Early Netherlandish painting.

This was dominated by the Flemish south, but painters from the north were also important.

Adam de Coster | Baroque / Genre painter

Little is known of the biography of Adam de Coster (1586 in Mechelen - 4 May 1643 in Antwerp).

Born in 1586 in the Flemish city of Mechelen, a province of Antwerp, he appears to have spent much of his career in Antwerp and became a Master of the Guild of Saint Luke around 1607.

His portrait was reproduced as an engraving in Anthony van Dyck's🎨 Iconography, where he was described as "pictor noctium", signaling that his reputation as a painter of night scenes had firmly been established in Northern Europe by the 1630s.

Although documentary evidence only ever records de Coster outside of Antwerp in 1635 when he visited Hamburg, Nicolson has noted that correspondences between his paintings and the works of the Lombard artist Antonio Campi suggest a possible sojourn to Italy.

Rogier Van Der Weyden | The Descent from the Cross, c. 1435

The Descent from the Cross was commissioned by the Greater Guild of Crossbowmen of Leuven in today's Belgium and was originally installed in the Chapel of Our Lady Without the Walls. The tiny crossbows in the side spandrels of the picture reflect the original patronage. De Vos and Campbell both give an approximate date of 1435 for the painting.

De Vos argues that the earliest known copy of Van der Weyden🎨's Deposition, the Edeleheere triptych in Leuwen, may have been completed by 1435, certainly before 1443. This implies that Van der Weyden🎨's painting pre-dates it. The painting was exchanged around 1548 for a copy by Michael Coxcie and an organ.

The new owner was Mary of Austria, sister of Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, for whom she governed the Habsburg Netherlands.

The painting was initially installed in Mary's castle at Binche, where it was seen by a Spanish courtier, Vicente Alvárez, who in 1551 wrote:

• "It was the best picture in the whole castle and even, I believe, in the whole world, for I have seen in these parts many good paintings but none that equalled this in truth to nature or devoutness. All those who have seen it were of the same opinion".

Sir Peter Paul Rubens | Baroque Era painter

Peter Paul Rubens, (born June 28, 1577, Siegen, Nassau, Westphalia [Germany] - died May 30, 1640, Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands [now in Belgium]), Flemish painter who was the greatest exponent of Baroque painting's🎨, dynamism, vitality, and sensuous exuberance. Though his masterpieces include portraits and landscapes, Rubens is perhaps best known for his religious and mythological compositions.

As the impresario of vast decorative programs, he presided over the most famous painter’s studio in Europe. His powers of invention were matched by extraordinary energy and versatility.

The art of Peter Paul Rubens is a fusion of the traditions of Flemish realism with the Classicizing tendencies of the Italian Renaissance🎨. Rubens was able to infuse his own astounding vitality into a powerful and exuberant style that came to epitomize the Baroque art of the 17th century.

Bartholomaeus Spranger | Mannerist painter

Bartholomaeus Spranger, also spelled Bartholomeus Sprangers, orSprangerson, (born March 21, 1546, Antwerp, Hapsburg Netherlands - died August 1611, Prague), Antwerp painter noted for his paintings of nudes executed in the late Mannerist style🎨. In his efforts to develop a Northern artistic canon of the human figure, Spranger employed mannered poses, slender, elongated bodies, and a gleaming, brittle texture in his work. The figures smile invitingly, and the influence of Parmigianino🎨 and Correggio🎨 is evident in their voluptuous contours.

Spranger went to Italy in 1567 and during a 10-year period spent in Rome and Parma, he assisted in completing an interrupted fresco project. Later, while working in Paris (c. 1565), he was influenced by the work of Francesco Primaticcio and Niccolò dell’ Abbate.

He returned to Rome in 1567 and became an assistant to Taddeo Zuccari, later working in Vienna for the emperor Maximilian II.

In 1581 he was appointed court painter in Prague by the emperor Rudolf II, and he remained in that city thereafter. The engraver Hendrik Goltzius made popular copies of Spranger’s work, resulting in their becoming widely known. | © Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Jan Gossaert | Renaissance painter

Jan Gossart, also called Jan Gossaert or Jan Mabuse, (born c. 1478, Maubeuge?, France - died October 1, 1532, Antwerp?), Netherlandish painter who was one of the first artists to introduce the style of the Italian Renaissance🎨 into the Low Countries.

Gossart is most likely to be identified with Jennyn van Hennegouwe, who is registered as a master in the Guild of St. Luke at Antwerp in 1503.

His most important early work extant is the Adoration of the Kings, which is painted in the ornate style of the Antwerp school. Other early works, such as Jesus, the Virgin, and the Baptist, reflect his interest in the works of Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer🎨. Another early work, famous for its sense of mood, is the Agony in the Garden.

Juan de Flandes | Northern Renaissance painter

Juan de Flandes (John of Flanders, c. 1460 - 1519) was an Early Netherlandish painter who was active in Spain from 1496-1519; his actual name is unknown, although an inscription Juan Astrat on the back of one work suggests a name such as "Jan van der Straat". Jan Sallaert, who became a master in Ghent in 1480, has also been suggested.

Robert Campin | Northern Renaissance painter

Robert Campin, (born c. 1378, Tournai, France - died April 26, 1444, Tournai), one of the earliest and greatest masters of Flemish painting**. He has been identified with the Master of Flémalle on stylistic and other grounds.

Characterized by a naturalistic conception of form and a poetic representation of the objects of daily life, Campin’s work marks a break with the prevailing International Gothic style and prefigures the achievements of Jan van Eyck and the painters of the Northern Renaissance**.