Quentin Matsys (1466-1530) was a Flemish painter whose work represents the first effective synthesis of the Netherlandish tradition with Italian Renaissance ideas. The founder of the Antwerp school, he was born in Leuven.
Matsys painted both religious pictures and secular portraits. Undated early works, such as “Virgin and Child” (Musées Royaux de Beaux-Arts, Brussels), show the influence of earlier Flemish masters in their intense religious feeling, sumptuous colors, and lavish attention to detail.
In later works, particularly in portraits and in everyday scenes, Matsys strove to depict his subjects in characteristic actions. In “Money Changer and His Wife” (1514, Louvre, Paris), the subtly hinted avarice of the couple illustrates a new satirical quality in his paintings.
His portraits, particularly “Portrait of an Elderly Man” (1513, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris), show the influence of Leonardo da Vinci in their unflinchingly honest, sometimes grotesque, physiognomies. His most advanced work, the “Ugly Duchess” (1515, National Gallery, London), which is probably not a portrait of an actual person but an illustration for “Praise of Folly” by Erasmus, carries his secular and satirical style to its culmination.
Quentin Matsys (1466-1530) was a Flemish painter whose work represents the first effective synthesis of the Netherlandish tradition with Italian Renaissance ideas. The founder of the Antwerp school, he was born in Leuven. 