Anthony Mor

Anthonis Mor, self-portrait, 1558

Margaret of Parma , ca.1562

Mor's wife Metgen, 1554

Anthonis Mor (* between 1512 and 1520 in Utrecht ; † between 1576 and 1577 in Antwerp ) also Anthony More or Anthonis Mor van Dashorst , was a Dutch portrait painter .

Origin and work

Antonio Moro (as he was called at the Spanish court) or Anthonis Mor van Dashorst (as he was called in his hometown Utrecht) came from the van Dashorst family, which had their origins in nearby Amersfoort and were quite wealthy there. After Wijburg, who looked into his origins, Anthony's grandfather, Mor Gerritsz van Dashorst, became a citizen of Utrecht in 1471. In 1479 he appeared there several times as "Mor van Dashorst". In 1483 he was called "Moer de Verwer" (Mor the painter). His parents were Philips Morrenzoon van Dashorst and Lijsbeth Everts daughter van der Beek. He was born in Utrecht around 1518.

Very little is known about Antonio Moro's childhood and youth, and the apprenticeship with the painter Jan van Scorel mentioned in many biographies has recently been questioned in some cases. He began to paint pictures in the style of Hans Holbein the Elder . From April 1550 on, Mor belonged in Rome to the household of the "Cardinal of Santa Fiora". There in Rome, Mor studied the ancient masters, but was also influenced by Titian .

After almost a year, Mor returned to the Netherlands and settled in Utrecht as a freelance painter. As such, he also became a member of the Guild of Luke . In the spring of 1552 he traveled to Madrid at the invitation of Queen Maria and Charles V , where he portrayed several members of the royal family. A portrait of Philip II was made here. On September 27, 1552, he was paid out and personally adopted by Queen Maria.

In the course of the following year, Mor returned to Utrecht and was able to buy a house there with his wife on January 4, 1554. A few weeks later, King Philip II invited him to London . Mor was supposed to effectively stage his wedding to Maria on July 25, 1554.

In 1555 Mor returned to the Netherlands, probably together with the court and Philip II, who traveled to Brussels to prepare the abdication of his father, Emperor Charles V. Between July 22, 1555 and January 21, 1556, a monumental portrait of Wilhelm I , the Dutch leader in the War of Independence , was created in Utrecht . The person pictured already has his command baton, but no insignia from the Order of the Golden Fleece .

After the death of his wife in 1558, he returned to Spain and was again in Madrid in the summer of 1559 to portray some members of the royal family on the occasion of the impending marriage of Philip II to Elisabeth of Valois and, at the request of the king , to capture this marriage in 1560 . At the end of the same year, Mor appears to have left home in a rush.

Soon after his return from Spain, Mor settled in Antwerp. It was there that he painted one of his last large portraits, that of the Spanish general Duke of Alba . Probably between April 17, 1576 and May 12, 1577 he died there between the ages of 55 and 65.

Works

His works are numerous, especially in the English collections, in Madrid, Vienna, Brussels, Petersburg and in the Louvre. The Imperial Gallery in Vienna owns the portrait of Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle , the Uffizi in Florence his self-portrait and the Berlin Picture Gallery the portrait of Margaret of Parma . As a painter of various courts, Mor enjoyed a high reputation. Pictures of Emperor Charles V, Queen Mary, Prince Wilhelm of Orange and Cardinal Granvelle are known by him.

literature

• Wilhelm Adolf Schmidt:  Mor, Anthonis . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 210 f.
• Henri Hymans : Antonio Moro. Son oeuvre et son temps . Brussels 1910 ( digitized ).
• WA Wijburg: Antonie Mor van Dashorst, 'vermaard signs van Utrecht' en zijn naaste familie . In: De Nederlandsche Leeuw 76, 1959, Sp. 230-248.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Antonis Mor . In: britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica , accessed May 22, 2018 . 

Web links

Commons : Anthonis Mor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by Anthonis Mor at Zeno.org .