The High Renaissance
 
&

Mannerism


   

 

Jan Massys

 

Jan Massys

(b Antwerp, c. 1509; d Antwerp, before 8 Oct 1575).

Painter, son of Quinten Metsys. More so than his brother Cornelis Massys, who was a less talented artist, Jan worked in the style of his father, whose studio he may have taken over following his death in 1530. Two years later, though still under the age of majority, Jan was admitted as a master in the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp. Like Cornelis, he seems to have left Antwerp immediately after attaining the status of master, for he is not mentioned again in the archives. It has been suggested on stylistic grounds that he worked for a period at Fontainebleau, but this is disputed. He was, in any case, back in Antwerp by 1536, when he took on an apprentice, Frans van Tuylt. In 1538 he married Anna van Tuylt, by whom he had three children. In 1543 Frans de Witte was registered as an apprentice.

Judith
Oil on panel, 115 x 80,5 cm
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

 

The Healing of Tobit
c. 1550
Panel
Musee de la Chartreuse, Douai