Background
Quentin Metsys was born in 1466 in Louvain, Belgium. He was the son of Joost Matsys and Catherine van Kincken. His name also spelled as Quentin Massys.
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Quentin Metsys was born in 1466 in Louvain, Belgium. He was the son of Joost Matsys and Catherine van Kincken. His name also spelled as Quentin Massys.
Quentin Matsys was a self-taught painter.
Quentin Matsys may have apprenticed in the leading workshop in Louvain. In 1491 he entered the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp, and opened a prosperous shop of his own. He remained active in Antwerp until his death in 1530.
His earliest documented works, the Saint Anne Altarpiece and the St. John Altarpiece, reveal a mature style. A group of devotional images dependent on earlier masters are generally assigned to his early period. These include versions of the Madonna and Child (National Gallery, London, and Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels).
Leonardo's influence is evident in the fuller figures, twisting poses, and grotesque physiognomies of Metsys' later works, such as Portrait of a Grotesque Woman (National Gallery, London). Metsys also collaborated with Patinir, supplying the incidental details for the latter's landscapes in the The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1515 - 1524; Prado, Madrid).
Metsys' diptych of Erasmus and Peter Gillis, created for Thomas More in 1517, reveals not only the artist's skill as portraitist but his close association with contemporary humanists. His genre works are moralistic, in the spirit of Erasmus' Praise of Folly.
His earliest genre painting may be Banker and His Wife, which illustrates the moralizing inscription on the original frame: "Let the balance be just and the weights equal. " A spiritual middleground is represented by the industrious banker and his wife, who is momentarily distracted from her richly decorated Book of Hours. Metsys condemns as foolish the chattering men in the background room, while his ideal is reflected in the mirror at center foreground: a man absorbed in reading his holy book before a church steeple.
Quentin Matsys was active in Antwerp for over twenty years, creating numerous works with religious roots and satirical tendencies. As a member of Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke, Matsys is considered to be one of its first notable artists. His paintings have a strong influence on Rogier Van der Weyden, Hans Memling and especially Dirk Bouts.
His paintings were exhibited at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and at the Doge’s Palace. Many works by the artist have been sold at auction, including "Portrait of gentleman, bust-length, in a fur-lined coat, telling a rosary, set in an architectural surround" sold at Christie's London 'Important Old Master & British Pictures' in 2007 for $1,518,622.
the Purchase Agreement
1515John the Baptist and St Agnes
1520Penitent Magdalene
1525Portrait of An Old Man
1524Saint Mary of Egypt
Portrait of a Man
1525Mary Magdalene
1515Ill-matched Lovers
1525Portrait of a Humanist
Portrait of Peter Gilles
1517Jesus Chasing the Merchants from the Temple
Ill-Matched Marriage (The Marriage Contract)
1530Portrait of a Man
1520Virgin in Prayer
St Christopher
Portrait of a Woman
1520Virgin and Child, Saint Catherine and Saint Barbara
1510De Kruisdraging
1515Saint Jerome in His Cell
The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Four Angels
1509Pinacoteca Mus'a Al Canopoleno - Mibac
1530Paracelsus
An Old Woman (The Ugly Duchess)
1513An Allegory of Folly
Virgin and Child Enthroned
1520Portrait of a Man
1520Crucifixion
1520Head of An Old Man
1525Portret Van Desiderius Erasmus
Adoration of the Mag
1526Cristo
1529the Moneylenders
1520Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam
1517Der Kanonikus Stephan Gardiner
1510Madonna col Bambino
1525The Moneylender and His Wife
1514Christ
1529Quentin Matsys was a member of Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke.
Quentin Matsys had two sons. Jan Matsys (1509 – 1575), became a master in the guild of Antwerp in 1531, and Cornelis Matsys (1513 – 1579), became a master painter in 1531, painting landscapes in his father’s style and also executing engravings.
