DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48088#0595
QUENTIN MATSYS.
Towards the year 1500, the school of van Eyck was rising into celebrity, whilst Antwerp,
which had succeeded Bruges as the chief commercial town of Belgium, took a new position in
art. It was here, during the zenith of its art-period, that the greatest Belgium master of the
time, Quentin Matsys, flourished. A contest was carried on for some time as to the birth-place of
“Meester Quentin,” whether it was Antwerp or Louvain. This has recently been decided in
favour of Antwerp, but the year of his birth is unknown. The first authenticidate relating to
him is the admission into the St. Luke Guild at Antwerp between 1491 and 1492. The docu-
ments which have certified his birth-place also mention that he was a pupil of the great Roger
van der Weyden, who died in 1464; and as Quentin was originally a “blacksmith,” (the rails
round the font at St. Pierre in Louvain and a chandelier are attributed to him) and only became
a painter later in life, he cannot have been less than twenty when his teacher of painting died
so that he must have been born in the year 1444, not in 1460, as was formerly supposed. His
far-famed skill in art (as well as in smith’s craft) naturally called him to the richest and
most crowded town, and made it his interest to take up his abode in it. This change in his
circumstances has been attributed by romantic legends to some affair of the heart, but no
dependence can be placed on these stories, and all that we know of his love affairs is that he
late in life contracted two very foolish marriages; about 1490, he married Adelheid van Tuylt,
by whom he had five sons and one daughter, and in 1508 or 1509 (when he was at least sixty-
four years of age), he led to the altar Katharina Heyens, by whom he had seven more children.
Quentin Matsys was also a distinguished musician, and essayed a trial with success in verse.
He must have been a man of great culture, as is proved by his having been on intimate terms
of friendship with such learned men as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Peter Aegidius, whilst his
artistic friends thought no less highly of him. Quentin died between the 8th of July and Christmas
of the year 1530, and was interred near the great entrance of the Cathedral. Cornelius van der
Geest, a distinguished friend of Art, for whom Rubens painted the “Erection of the Cross” (now
in the Cathedral) had the monument of Quentin Matsys renewed in 1629, but with a wrong date
for his death (1529). A copy has been substituted for the monument, and the original has
been placed in the Antwerp Museum, and ranks amongst Quentin Matsys’ best works. This
master-piece, a great altar with three wings, was ordered by the joiner’s guild for their chapel
in the Cathedral, and cost three hundred guldens. It remained there till the destruction of the
pictures (1566) by the iconoclasts, from whom it was fortunately concealed, whilst a Christ on
41*
Towards the year 1500, the school of van Eyck was rising into celebrity, whilst Antwerp,
which had succeeded Bruges as the chief commercial town of Belgium, took a new position in
art. It was here, during the zenith of its art-period, that the greatest Belgium master of the
time, Quentin Matsys, flourished. A contest was carried on for some time as to the birth-place of
“Meester Quentin,” whether it was Antwerp or Louvain. This has recently been decided in
favour of Antwerp, but the year of his birth is unknown. The first authenticidate relating to
him is the admission into the St. Luke Guild at Antwerp between 1491 and 1492. The docu-
ments which have certified his birth-place also mention that he was a pupil of the great Roger
van der Weyden, who died in 1464; and as Quentin was originally a “blacksmith,” (the rails
round the font at St. Pierre in Louvain and a chandelier are attributed to him) and only became
a painter later in life, he cannot have been less than twenty when his teacher of painting died
so that he must have been born in the year 1444, not in 1460, as was formerly supposed. His
far-famed skill in art (as well as in smith’s craft) naturally called him to the richest and
most crowded town, and made it his interest to take up his abode in it. This change in his
circumstances has been attributed by romantic legends to some affair of the heart, but no
dependence can be placed on these stories, and all that we know of his love affairs is that he
late in life contracted two very foolish marriages; about 1490, he married Adelheid van Tuylt,
by whom he had five sons and one daughter, and in 1508 or 1509 (when he was at least sixty-
four years of age), he led to the altar Katharina Heyens, by whom he had seven more children.
Quentin Matsys was also a distinguished musician, and essayed a trial with success in verse.
He must have been a man of great culture, as is proved by his having been on intimate terms
of friendship with such learned men as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Peter Aegidius, whilst his
artistic friends thought no less highly of him. Quentin died between the 8th of July and Christmas
of the year 1530, and was interred near the great entrance of the Cathedral. Cornelius van der
Geest, a distinguished friend of Art, for whom Rubens painted the “Erection of the Cross” (now
in the Cathedral) had the monument of Quentin Matsys renewed in 1629, but with a wrong date
for his death (1529). A copy has been substituted for the monument, and the original has
been placed in the Antwerp Museum, and ranks amongst Quentin Matsys’ best works. This
master-piece, a great altar with three wings, was ordered by the joiner’s guild for their chapel
in the Cathedral, and cost three hundred guldens. It remained there till the destruction of the
pictures (1566) by the iconoclasts, from whom it was fortunately concealed, whilst a Christ on
41*