The Master with the Parrot or Master of the Parrot (fl. between 1520 and 1540) is the notname given to a group of Flemish painters who likely worked in a workshop in Antwerp in the first half of the 16th century. They produced devotional pictures for the local bourgeoisie in a style reminiscent of contemporary Flemish painters working in an Italianate style. [1]
The scholar of Flemish painting Max Friedländer was the first to group a set of 15 homogenous works and attribute them to an unknown artist whom he gave the notname 'Der Meister mit dem Papagei' ('Master with the Parrot') in an article, which appeared in 1948-49. [2] Friedlander gave the name because the common factor of the works he gave to the painter was their depiction of the Virgin with the Christ child often together with an idiosyncratic, exotic bird. [3]
Gradually more works were assigned to this master until there were about 100 works. Later research led to a new hypothesis about the attribution of the body of work: rather than a single individual painter, it is now surmised that because of the differences in style the works were the product of a workshop with several artists. [1]
There is no certainty about the exact period during which the Master with the Parrot was active. It must have been in the first half of the 16th century and probably during the 1520s and 1530s. [4] It is generally believed that the workshop was based in Antwerp but it is possible it was in fact located in Bruges. [3]
Most of the works attributed to the Master with the Parrot are portraits and religious compositions, especially of the Virgin with Child, playing with a parrot, as well as of Mary Magdalene and the suicide of Lucretia. Despite the uneven quality of the paintings attributed to the Master, a core body of work of a high quality has been assigned to him, which is distinguished by its uniform style and recurring motifs. The core work in this oeuvre is the Virgin and Child feeding a Parrot in the San Diego Museum of Art. [4] The figures in the compositions are characterized by features such as long fingers and oval nails, a broad face and thin nose. [5] These features are in line with the Mannerist taste for elegant body proportions that surpass reality. [6]
The Master of the Parrot's paintings betray the influence of the Italianate artists of the generation following Quentin Matsys and Bernard van Orley who worked in the Southern Netherlands. Similarities with the oeuvre of Pieter Coecke van Aelst are particularly apparent. Among the most distinguished Flemish painters of the 16th century, Pieter Coecke van Aelst became a master in Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke in 1527 and maintained a large and productive workshop. It is likely the Master of the Parrot began his career in van Coecke's workshop. In fact, many of the works now given to the Master of the Parrot were formerly attributed to that artist. [3]
The Master with the Parrot's paintings betray also the influence of the Romanist artists active in the region such as Joos van Cleve, Ambrosius Benson and Jan Gossaert. From Gossaert, the Master with the Parrot took the inspiration for various compositions of the Holy Family and the sculptural aspect of his figures. This is particularly clear in the Virgin and Child (Auctioned at Koller Zürich, 2014-09-15 - 2014-09-20, lot 3008). [4] The closeness to Benson indicates that the Master's workshop may have maintained contacts with the Bruges school of painting. [5] From Joos van Cleve, the Master borrowed the compositional scheme of placing the Virgin in an elaborate landscape with still life elements. He also used a sfumato technique reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci, which attests to the enduring Itailianate influence on his work. [4]
The Master's style also bears similarities to the works of the Master of the Female Half-Lengths and his works have in the past been attributed to that Master.
Many of the Master with the Parrot's works were made for the export market, and given the then existing trade and political ties with Spain, many of them ended up in Spain. Many of the compositions are still found in Spanish collections such as the Prado, the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum and various private collections. [7]
Media related to Master with the Parrot at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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Bernard van Orley, also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a versatile Flemish artist and representative of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, who was equally active as a designer of tapestries and, at the end of his life, stained glass. Although he never visited Italy, he belongs to the group of Italianizing Flemish painters called the Romanists, who were influenced by Italian Renaissance painting, in his case especially by Raphael.
Pieter Coecke van Aelst or Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder was a Flemish painter, sculptor, architect, author and designer of woodcuts, goldsmith's work, stained glass and tapestries. His principal subjects were Christian religious themes. He worked in Antwerp and Brussels and was appointed court painter to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
Antwerp Mannerism is the name given to the style of a group of largely anonymous painters active in the Southern Netherlands and principally in Antwerp in roughly the first three decades of the 16th century, a movement marking the tail end of Early Netherlandish painting, and an early phase within Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting. The style bore no relation to Italian Mannerism, which it mostly predates by a few years, but the name suggests that it was a reaction to the "classic" style of the earlier Flemish painters, just as the Italian Mannerists were reacting to, or trying to go beyond, the classicism of High Renaissance art.
Romanism is a term used by art historians to refer to painters from the Low Countries who had travelled in the 16th century to Rome. In Rome they had absorbed the influence of leading Italian artists of the period such as Michelangelo and Raphael and his pupils. Upon their return home, these Northern artists created a Renaissance style, which assimilated Italian formal language. The style continued its influence until the early 17th century when it was swept aside by the Baroque.
Pieter Boel or Peeter Boel was a Flemish painter, printmaker and tapestry designer. He specialised in lavish still lifes and animal paintings. He moved to Paris, where he worked in the gobelin factory and became a painter to the king. Pieter Boel revolutionized animal painting by working directly from live animals in a natural setting. He thus arrived at representations of animals showing them in their natural, characteristic poses. He had many followers in France.
Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting represents the 16th-century response to Italian Renaissance art in the Low Countries, as well as many continuities with the preceding Early Netherlandish painting. The period spans from the Antwerp Mannerists and Hieronymus Bosch at the start of the 16th century to the late Northern Mannerists such as Hendrik Goltzius and Joachim Wtewael at the end. Artists drew on both the recent innovations of Italian painting and the local traditions of the Early Netherlandish artists.
The Master of the Embroidered Foliage is the Notname for an Early Netherlandish painter or a group of painters who worked out of Bruges and Brussels.
Jan Mertens the Younger was a South Netherlandish painter, at the end of the period of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born and died in Antwerp. His father was the sculptor Jan Mertens the Elder, whose family is thought to have originated in Tournai. Mertens the Younger was apprenticed to the painter Jan Gossaert in 1505, and he became a master of the Antwerp painters' guild in 1509. He was the father-in-law of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, who married Mertens’s daughter Anna before 1526, and whose work has been used as the basis for the identification of Mertens with the Master of 1518, an Antwerp painter named after the date inscribed on the painted wings of a carved wooden altarpiece of the Life of the Virgin in St. Mary's Church, Lübeck.
Pieter Thijs, Peter Thijs or Pieter Thys was a Flemish painter of portraits as well as religious and history paintings. He was a very successful artist who worked for the courts in Brussels and The Hague as well as for many religious institutions. His work was close to the courtly and elegant style of Anthony van Dyck and his followers.
The Master of the Female Half-Lengths is the notname given to a painter, or more likely a group of painters of a workshop, active in the Low Countries in the early sixteenth century. The name was given in the 19th century to identify the maker or makers of a body of work consisting of 67 paintings to which since 40 more have been added. The Master created female figures in genre scenes, small religious and mythological works, landscapes and portraits.
Jan de Beer, formerly known as the Master of the Milan Adoration was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and glass designer active in Antwerp at the beginning of the 16th century. He is considered one of the most important members of the loose group of painters active in and around Antwerp in the early 16th century referred to as the Antwerp Mannerists. Highly respected in his time, he operated a large workshop with an important output of religious compositions.
The Madonna and Child Playing With the Veil, is a devotional painting finished around 1520-1530 by the Flemish High Renaissance painter Jan Gossaert. It is housed in the Mauritshuis museum of The Hague, Netherlands.
Cornelis van Cleve, Cornelis van Cleef or Cornelis van der Beke, nickname Sotte Cleve was a Flemish Renaissance painter active in Antwerp who is known for his religious compositions and portraits. Starting his career in Antwerp in the workshop of his father Joos van Cleve, he later worked for a while in London. When he failed to achieve success in England, he became insane and stopped painting.
Brussels tapestry workshops produced tapestry from at least the 15th century, but the city's early production in the Late Gothic International style was eclipsed by the more prominent tapestry-weaving workshops based in Arras and Tournai. In 1477 Brussels, capital of the duchy of Brabant, was inherited by the house of Habsburg; and in the same year Arras, the prominent center of tapestry-weaving in the Low Countries, was sacked and its tapestry manufacture never recovered, and Tournai and Brussels seem to have increased in importance.
The Master of Hoogstraeten is the Notname given to a Flemish painter or a collective of painters active in Antwerp in the early 16th century. The master created principally religious paintings and is considered a member of the Antwerp Mannerists.
The Master of the Prodigal Son, was the notname given to a Flemish painter and designer of tapestries and stained glass. He was active in Antwerp where he operated a large workshop between 1530 and 1560. He painted religious subjects, landscapes, genre scenes and allegories. He is regarded as a leading master of Flemish Mannerism in the sixteenth century.
Pieter van Aelst or Pieter van Aelst III was a Flemish tapestry weaver whose workshop commenced by his grandfather was one of the leading weavers of Flanders in the first half of the 16th century.
Peeter Sion or Peter Sion was a Flemish painter of landscapes, history paintings and genre scenes. His work was mainly produced for the export market and dealt with biblical stories.
Adriaen van Overbeke, Adrian van Overbeck and Adriaen van Overbeke was a Flemish Renaissance painter in the style of Antwerp Mannerism. He operated a large workshop with an important output of altarpieces, which were mainly exported to Northern France, the Rhineland and Westphalia. His known works were predominantly polychromed wooden altarpieces with painted shutters, which were created through a collaboration between painters and sculptors.
The Master of the Von Groote Adoration is a notname given to an artist or a number of artists or various workshops active in Antwerp sometime between 1500 and 1520. Whereas there are significant variations in the style of the works attributed to the master, the repetitions of certain subjects played an important role in the composition of the oeuvre. The master is considered a representative of the group of Antwerp mannerists who created works in an extravagant style in the early sixteenth century.
