Metsys, Quentin

born с 1465/66, Louvain, Brabant

died 1530, Antwerp

Flemish artist.

According to tradition, Metsys (whose name was also spelled Massys and Matsys) was trained as a blacksmith but studied painting after falling in love with an artist's daughter. He was admitted to the Antwerp artists' guild in 1491. His most celebrated paintings are two large triptych altarpieces, The Holy Kinship (1507–09) and The Entombment of Christ (1508–11), both of which exhibit strong religious feelings and precision of detail. He painted many notable portraits, including one of Desiderius Erasmus. He was the first important painter of the Antwerp school, and the first Flemish artist to effect a genuine synthesis of the northern European and Italian Renaissance traditions.

* * *