Quentin Matsys
( † 1530 in Antwerp * ca 1466 in Leuven ) was a Flemish painter and medalist and co-founder of the Antwerp school of painting Quentin Massys ( as a first name is Quinten or Kwinten, as a surname Massijs, Matsijs, Matsys or Metsys handed ).
Historical Background
In addition to Italy, a center of art in the 15th century had also become rich through trade in the Netherlands emerged. It also lions were especially Bruges, Ghent and Brussels, at the end of the century, the main variety of Flemish painting. In 1488 Bruges, however, had lost its previous trading privileges due to a revolt against the Roman-German King Maximilian. These had been awarded Antwerp, which the city's main storehouse of the Netherlands. The growing wealth of the city was now also significantly to the revival of the arts in. At the beginning of the 16th century Antwerp took over as the leading role in the field of painting. Massys - member of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke - was one of their most outstanding artists.
Life
According to ancient tradition, he received in his native town of Leuven initially trained as a blacksmith. Before the Antwerp Cathedral of Our Lady is the fountain De put Quinten van Metsijs whose ironwork are attributed to him.
Legend has it that Massys had fallen in love with the daughter of a painter lions and hoped for by the change to the craft of painting the response to this love. Less poetic, but more realistic is another version: Quentin's father, Josse Matsys, was clockmaker and architect in urban services. As the follow-up question had to be resolved, the decision was made in favor of Josse, Quentin's brother. Quentin moved to the painting and decorating trade, especially a weakening after a serious illness made the further activity impossible as a blacksmith.
During his training as a blacksmith, he had already learned to draw. There are no sources that can prove who has in Massys enjoyed his now following painters - training. It seems likely that he has found through self-education and thorough observation of nature its own way of painting, which could explain its independent character. After Massys had moved to Antwerp in 1491, he founded there his professional existence and was inducted into the St.Lukas - painters' guild.
Massys was in contact with many famous painters of his time. On his trips to England, he met several times probably Hans Holbein the Younger. Dürer visited him in 1520 in Antwerp. He was godfather to the child of Joachim Patinir, suspected of that he has been involved in some images Massys in the background.
Massys died in 1530 in Antwerp, probably of the plague. He was later named the asteroid after 9569 in his honor.
Family
In 1492 he married Alyt van Tuylt († 1507). With her he had three children: Quinten, Pawel and Catherine. After her death ( 1507) he married Catherina Heyn in 1508. With her he had the following children: Jan, Cornelis (which later became painters were ), Quinten II, Maria, Hubrecht, Abraham, Peter Ella, Catherine II, Sarah and Susannah.
His brother Josse was arrested in 1543 and convicted, to have read the Bible from the Inquisition. For this he was beheaded. His wife Katharina was buried alive in front of the town house in Leuven.
Works
His first known work is the altarpiece The Holy Family for the St. Pieterskerk in Leuven ( 1507-09 ), in which his typical characteristics already become clear.
His famous painting The Lamentation of Christ (oil on wood) he painted from 1508 to 1511 on behalf of the carpenters ' guild for the cathedral of his new hometown. Today it hangs there in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. The image is very expressive - both in the presentation of the body as in the description of emotive expressions of the mourners. In this respect it surpassed anything the Dutch art had done in the decades before. The painting offers great accuracy in the details ( as on the right side panel in the reflection of the fire in the boiler ), safety in the mastery of light and shade, but also witnessed a penchant for the grotesque as in the faces of the two men who the fire under the cauldron stir.
Massys emphasis on the individuality of his characters also qualified him for the portrait painting, such as the famous image from 1517 of his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam proves (oil on canvas, it now hangs in the Galleria Nazionale d' Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini in Rome ). In this area, Massys is 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 wood, 1514), which hangs in the Louvre in Paris today. As was customary, comes a lot of details in the image of particular importance: as the scales of justice, while the mirror is a sign of the fragility of life is. In other items (coins, beads, but also the orange on the shelf ) the wealth of the sitter is expressed.
" A Grotesque Old Woman " ( 1525-30, oil on wood, National Gallery, London) is perhaps his most famous work. ( She is the template for the Queen in Alice in Wonderland ). Some see in this picture not just a cartoon, but a portrait of Margaret Maultasch, Countess of Tyrol. By Frank Cottrell Boyce's book masterpiece, the picture won ( after a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci) are particularly well known.
Style characteristics
His style resembles that of Dirk Bouts, who brought the ideas of Hans Memling and Rogier van der Weyden to Lion. Massys had, as most of the early Flemish painters, a fondness for jewelry, ornaments or Borden general.
It can be particularly through a large religiosity characterize, a legacy of its predecessors. There is also a pronounced realism, sometimes combined with a preference for the grotesque. From the model of van der Weyden comes his safety in the contours, and his attention to detail, from van Eyck and Memling about Dirk Bouts the glowing richness of the colors. Furthermore, the balanced composition of his paintings impressed.
He is the last in the series of Flemish Primitives. In his last works one senses already the spirit of the Renaissance.