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See also: birth-place, See also: Maubeuge) by the Flemish painter JENNI GOSART, or JENNYN See also: VAN HENNEGOUWE (Hainault), as he called himself when he matriculated in the gild of St See also: Luke, at See also: Antwerp, in 1503
.
We know nothing of his early See also: life, but his See also: works tell us that he stood in his first See also: period under the influence of artists to whom plastic See also: models were See also: familiar; and this leads to the belief that he spent his youth on the French border rather than on the See also: banks of the See also: Scheldt
.
Without the subtlety or power of Van der See also: Weyden, he had this much in See also: common with the See also: great master of See also: Tournai and Brussels, that his compositions were usually framed in architectural backgrounds
.
But whilst See also: Mabuse thus early betrays his dependence on the masters of the French frontier, be also confesses admiration for the great painters who first gave lustre to Antwerp; and in the large altar-pieces of See also: Castle See also: Howard and Scawby he combines in a quaint and not unskilful medley the sentiment of Memling, the bright and decided contrasts of pigment See also: peculiar to coloured reliefs, the cornered and packed drapery familiar to Van der Weyden, and the bold but Socratic cast of face remarkable in the works of Quentin Matsys
.
At Scawby he illustrates the See also: legend of the count of Toulouse, who parted with his wordly goods to assume the See also: frock of a See also: hermit
.
At Castle Howard he represents the Adoration of the See also: Kings, and throws together some See also: thirty figures on an architectural background, varied in detail, massive in shape and fanciful in See also: ornament
.
He surprises us by pompous See also: costume and flaring contrasts of See also: tone
.
His figures, like pieces on a See also: chess-See also: board, are often rigid and conventional
.
The landscape which shows through the colonnades is adorned with towers and steeples in the minute fashion of Van der Weyden
.
After a residence of a few years at Antwerp, Mabuse took service with See also: Philip,
See also: bastard of Philip the See also: Good, at that See also: time See also: lord of Somerdyk and See also: admiral of See also: Zeeland
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One of his pictures had already become celebrated —a Descent from the See also: Cross (5o figures), on the high altar of the monastery of St Michael of Tongerloo
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Philip of See also: Burgundy ordered Mabuse to execute a replica for the See also: church of
See also: Middelburg; and the value which was then set on the picture is apparent from the fact that See also: Durer came expressly to Middelburg (1521) to see it
.
In 1568 the altar-piece perished by fire . In 1508 Mabuse accompanied Philip of Burgundy on hisSee also: Italian See also: mission; and by this accident an important revolution was effected in the See also: art of the See also: Netherlands
.
Mabuse appears to have chiefly studied in See also: Italy the cold and polished works of the Leonardesques
.
He not only brought home a new See also: style, but he also introduced the fashion of travelling to Italy; and from that time till the age of See also: Rubens and Van Dyck it was considered proper that all Flemish painters should visit the peninsula
.
The Flemings grafted Italian mannerisms on their own stock; and the cross turned out sounfortunately that for a century Flemish art lost all trace of originality
.
In the summer of 1509 Philip returned to the Netherlands, and, retiring to his seat of Suytburg in Zeeland, surrendered himself to the pleasures of planning decorations for his castle and ordering pictures of Mabuse and See also: Jacob of Barbari
.
Being in See also: constant communication with the See also: court of See also: Margaret of See also: Austria at Malines, he gave the artists in his employ See also: fair chances of See also: pro-motion
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Barbari was made court painter to the See also: regent, whilst Mabuse received less important commissions
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Records prove that Mabuse painted a portrait of Leonora of See also: Portugal, and other small pieces, for See also: Charles V. in 1516
.
But his only signed pictures of this period are the
See also: Neptune and See also: Amphitrite of 1516 at Berlin, and the Madonna, with a portrait of See also: Jean Carondelet of 1517, at the Louvre, in both of which we clearly discern that See also: Vasari only spoke by hearsay of the progress made by Mabuse in " the true method of producing pictures full of nude figures and poesies." It is difficult to find anything more coarse or misshapen than the Amphitrite, unless we except the See also: grotesque and ungainly drayman who figures for Neptune
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In later forms of the same subject—the See also: Adam and See also: Eve at See also: Hampton Court, or its feebler replica at Berlin—we observe more nudity, combined with See also: realism of the commonest type
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Happily, Mabuse was capable of higher efforts
.
His St Luke See also: painting the portrait of the Virgin in Sanct See also: Veit at See also: Prague, a variety of the same subject in the Belvedere at Vienna, the Madonna of the See also: Baring collection in See also: London, or the numerous repetitions of Christ and the scoffers (See also: Ghent and Antwerp), all prove that travel had See also: left many of Mabuse's fundamental peculiarities unaltered
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His figures still retain the character of See also: stone; his architecture is as
See also: rich and varied, his tones are as strong as ever
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But bright contrasts of See also: gaudy tints are replaced by soberer greys; and a cold haze, the sfumato of the Milanese, pervades the surfaces
.
It is but seldom that these features fail to obtrude
.
When they least show, the master displays a brilliant palette combined with smooth See also: surface and incisive outlines
.
In this See also: form the Madonnas of See also: Munich and Vienna (1527), the likeness of a girl weighing gold pieces (Berlin), and the portraits of the See also: children of the See also: king of
See also: Denmark at Hampton Court, are fair specimens of his skill
.
As early as 1523, when Christian II. of Denmark came to Belgium, he asked Mabuse to paint the likenesses of his dwarfs
.
In 1528 he requested the artist to furnish to Jean de See also: Hare the design for his See also: queen Isabella's See also: tomb in the abbey of St See also: Pierre near Ghent
.
It was no doubt at this time that Mabuse completed the portraits of See also: John, Dorothy and Christine, children of Christian II., which came into the collection of
See also: Henry VIII
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No doubt, also, these portraits are identical with those of three children at Hampton Court, which were long known and often copied as likenesses of
See also: Prince Arthur, Prince Henry and Princess Margaret of See also: England
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One of the copies at See also: Wilton, inscribed with the forged name of " Hans See also: Holbein, ye See also: father," and the false date of 1495, has often been cited as a proof that Mabuse came to England in the reign of Henry VII.; but the statement rests on no foundation whatever
.
At the period when these portraits were executed Mabuse lived at Middelburg
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But he dwelt at intervals elsewhere . When Philip of Burgundy became See also: bishop of See also: Utrecht, and settled at Duerstede, near Wyck, in 1517, he was accompanied by Mabuse, who helped to decorate the new palace of his master
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At Philip's See also: death, in 1524, Mabuse designed and erected his tomb in the church of Wyck
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He finally retired to Middelburg, where he took service with Philip's See also: brother, Adolph, lord of Veeren
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Van See also: Mander's biography accuses Mabuse of habitual See also: drunkenness; yet it describes the splendid appearance of the artist as, dressed in gold See also: brocade, he accompanied Lucas of See also: Leyden on a pleasure trip to Ghent, Malines and Antwerp in 1527
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The works of Mabuse are those of a hardworking and patient artist; the number of his still extant pictures practically demonstrates that he was not a debauchee
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The See also: marriage of his daughter with the painter Henry Van der See also: Heyden of See also: Louvain proves that he had a home, and did not live habitually in taverns, as Van Mander suggests
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His death at Antwerp, on the 1st of See also: October 1532, is recorded in the portrait engraved by See also: Jerome See also: Cock
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