Quentin Massys
Quentin Massys (the first name is also Quinten or Kwinten, the last name is Massijs, Matsijs, Matsys or Metsys) (* approx. 1466 in Leuven ; † 1530 in Antwerp ) was a Flemish painter and medalist and co-founder of the Antwerp School of Painting .
Historical background
In addition to Italy, a center of art had developed in the Netherlands, which had become rich through trade in the 15th century. Above all, Bruges , Ghent and Brussels , and at the end of the century Leuven, were the main places of Flemish painting. In 1488, however, Bruges lost its previous trading privileges as a result of an uprising against the Roman-German King Maximilian . These were given to Antwerp, which made the city the main staging ground in the Netherlands. The city's growing wealth contributed significantly to the revival of art. At the beginning of the 16th century Antwerp took on the leading role in the field of painting. Massys - member of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke - was one of its most outstanding artists.
Life
According to old tradition, he initially trained as a blacksmith in his native city of Leuven . In front of the Antwerp Cathedral of Our Lady stands the De put van Quinten Metsijs fountain , the ironwork of which is attributed to him.
A legend tells that Massys fell in love with the daughter of a painter in Löwen and that she hoped for a return of this love by switching to the painting trade. Another version is less poetic, but more realistic: Quentin's father, Josse Matsys, was a clockmaker and master builder in the city's service. When the question of the successor had to be clarified, the decision was made in favor of Josse, Quentin's brother. Quentin switched to the painting trade, especially since a weakening after a serious illness made further work as a blacksmith impossible.
During his training as a blacksmith, he had already learned to draw. There are no sources that can prove with whom Massys received his subsequent training as a painter. The idea is that he has found his own way of painting through self-education and thorough observation of nature, which could explain his independent character. After Massys moved to Antwerp in 1491, he established his professional existence there and was accepted into the St. Luke painters' guild.
Massys was in contact with many famous painters of his time. On his travels to England he probably met Hans Holbein the Younger several times . Dürer visited him in Antwerp in 1520. He became the godfather of the children of Joachim Patinir , who is believed to have contributed to the backgrounds of some of Massy's pictures.
Massys died in Antwerp in 1530, presumably of the plague. In his honor, the asteroid (9569) Quintenmatsijs was named after him in November 2002 .
family
In 1492 he married Alyt van Tuylt († 1507). With her he had three children: Quinten, Pawel and Katelijne. After her death (1507) he married Catherina Heyn in 1508 . With her he had the following children: Jan , Cornelis (who later also became painters), Quinten II, Maria, Hubrecht, Abraham, Peternella, Katelijne II, Sara and Susannah.
His brother Josse's daughter, Katharine, married the sculptor Jean Beyaert. Both were convicted by the Inquisition in 1543 of having read the Bible. For this, Katharine was buried alive in front of the town hall in Leuven, Jean was beheaded.
Works
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His first known work is the altarpiece The Holy Family for the St. Pieterskerk in Leuven (1507–1509), in which the characteristics typical of him become clear.
His famous painting The Lamentation of Christ (oil on wood) he painted 1508–1511 for the carpenters' guild for the cathedral of his new hometown. Today it hangs there in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts . The picture is very expressive - both in the depiction of the corpse and in the description of the emotional expressions of the mourners. In this respect it surpassed anything Dutch art had achieved in the previous decades. The painting captivates with great precision in the details (for example on the right side panel in the reflection of the fire in the kettle), security in the control of light and shadow, but also testifies to a preference for the grotesque as in the faces of the two men who stoke the fire under the cauldron.
Massy's emphasis on the individuality of his figures also qualified him for portraiture , as the famous picture from 1517 by his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam proves (oil on canvas, it now hangs in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome ). In this area Massys was strongly influenced by his contemporaries Lucas van Leyden and Jan Mabuse .
An early example of genre painting is The Money Changer and His Wife (oil on panel, 1514), which now hangs in the Louvre in Paris . As was customary at the time, many details in the picture have a special meaning: the scales stand for justice, whereas the mirror is a symbol for the fragility of life. In other elements (coins, pearls, but also the orange on the shelf) the richness of the portrayed is expressed.
A Grotesque Old Woman (1525–1530, oil on wood, National Gallery , London ) is perhaps his best-known work. (She is the model for the Queen in Alice in Wonderland .) Some see not just a caricature in this picture, but a portrait of Margarete Maultasch , Countess of Tyrol. The picture (based on a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci ) gained particular fame through Frank Cottrell Boyce's book Meisterwerk .
Style features
His style is similar to that of Dirk Bouts , who brought the ideas of Hans Memling and Rogier van der Weyden to Löwen. Like most of the early Flemish painters, Massys had a penchant for jewelry, borders or ornaments in general.
He can be characterized in particular by great religiosity, an inheritance from his predecessors. There is also a pronounced realism, sometimes paired with a preference for the grotesque. His security in the contours and his care in the details come from the example of van der Weyden , from van Eyck and Memling to Dirk Bouts the luminous richness of the colors. The balanced composition of his pictures is also impressive.
It is the last in the series of the so-called " Flemish Primitives ". In his last works you can already feel the spirit of the Renaissance .
literature
- Joseph Eduard Wessely : Metsys, Quentin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 521-523.
Web links
- Quentin Massys. Biographical data and works in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
- Works by Quentin Massys at Zeno.org .
- Works by Quentin Massys at CGFA
- Video guide to the painting The money changer and his wife
supporting documents
- ↑ Massys or Metsys, Quentin, also Quintijn Messijs or Quintin Matsys, in: L. Forrer: Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Volume III, London 1907, pp. 604 ff.
- ↑ biography
- ^ Robert Eduard Prutz (editor), Deutsches Museum , Volume 1, p. 606, digitized version
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Massys, Quentin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Massys, fifths; Massys, Kwinten; Massijs, Quentin; Matsijs, Quentin; Matsys, Quentin; Metsys, Quentin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Flemish painter and co-founder of the Antwerp School of Painting |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1466 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lions |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1530 |
| Place of death | Antwerp |