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Jan Mabuse (d. October 1, 1532), the name adopted
(from his birthplace, Maubeuge) by the Flemish
painter Jenni Gosart, or Jennyn van Hennegouwe
(Hainault), as he called himself when he
matriculated in the gild of St Luke, at Antwerp,
in 1503.

We know nothing of his early life, but his works
tell us that he stood in his first period under
the influence of artists to whom plastic models
were familiar; and this leads to the belief that
he spent his youth on the French border rather
than on the banks of the Scheldt. Without the
subtlety or power of Roger van der Weyden|Van der
Weyden, he had this much in common with the great
master of Tournai and Brussels, that his
compositions were usually framed in architectural
backgrounds.

But whilst Mabuse thus early betrays his
dependence on the masters of the French frontier,
he also confesses admiration for the great
painters who first gave lustre to Antwerp; and in
the large altar-pieces of Castle Howard and Scawby
he combines in a quaint and not unskilful medley
the sentiment of Hans Memlinc|Memling, the bright
and decided contrasts of pigment peculiar to
colored 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
legend of the count of Toulouse, who parted with
his wordly goods to assume the frock of a hermit.

At Castle Howard he represents the Adoration of
the Kings, and throws together some thirty figures
on an architectural background, varied in detail,
massive in shape and fanciful in ornament. He
surprises us by pompous costume and flaring
contrasts of tone. His figures, like pieces on a
chess-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
Philip of Burgundy, Bishop of Utrecht|Philip of
Burgundy, bastard of Philip the Good, at that time
lord of Somerdyk and admiral of Zeeland. One of
his pictures had already become celebrated a
Descent from the Cross (50 figures), on the high
altar of the monastery of St Michael of Tongerloo.

Philip of Burgundy ordered Mabuse to execute a
replica for the church of Middelburg; and the
value which was then set on the picture is
apparent from the fact that DUrer came expressly
to Middelburg (1521) to see it. In 1568 the
altar-piece perished by fire. In 1568 Mabuse
accompanied Philip of Burgundy on his Italian
mission; and by this accident an important
revolution was effected in the art of the
Netherlands. Mabuse appears to have chiefly
studied in Italy the cold and polished works of
the Leonardesques. He not only brought home a new
style, but he also introduced the fashion of
travelling to Italy; and from that time till the
age of Peter Paul Rubens|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 so unfortunately 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 Jacopo de
Barbari|Jacob of Barbari. Being in constant
communication with the court of Margaret of
Austria (1480-1530)|Margaret of Austria at
Mechelen, he gave the artists in his employ fair
chances of promotion. Barbari was made court
painter to the regent, whilst Mabuse received less
important commissions. Records prove that Mabuse
painted a portrait of Leonora of Portugal, and
other small pieces, for Charles V, Holy Roman
Emperor|Charles V in 1516.

But his only signed pictures of this period are
the Neptune and Amphitrite of 1516 at Berlin, and
the Madonna, with a portrait of Jean Carondelet of
1517, at the Louvre, in both of which we clearly
discern that Giorgio Vasari|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 grotesque and ungainly drayman who
figures for Neptune (god)|Neptune. In later forms
of the same subject--the Adam and Eve at Hampton
Court, or its feebler replica at Berlin--we
observe more nudity, combined with realism of the
commonest type.

Happily, Mabuse was capable of higher efforts. His
St Luke painting the portrait of the Virgin in
Sanct Veit at Prague, a variety of the same
subject in the Belvedere at Vienna, the Madonna of
the Baring collection in London, or the numerous
repetitions of Christ and the scoffers (Ghent and
Antwerp), all prove that travel had left many of
Mabuses fundamental peculiarities unaltered. His
figures still retain the character of stone; his
architecture is as rich and varied, his tones are
as strong as ever. But bright contrasts of gaudy
tints are replaced by soberer greys; and a cold
haze, the sfumalo 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
surface and incisive outlines. In this form the
Madonnas of Munich and Vienna (1527), the likeness
of a girl weighing gold pieces (Berlin), and the
portraits of the children of the king of 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 Hare the design for
his queen Isabellas tomb in the abbey of St Pierre
near Ghent. It was no doubt at this time that
Mabuse completed the portraits of John, Dorothy
and Christine, children of Christian II, which
came into the collection of Henry VIII of
England|Henry VIII. 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 Prince Arthur,
Prince Henry and Princess Margaret of England. One
of the copies at Wilton, inscribed with the forged
name of Hans Holbein, ye 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
of England|Henry VII; but the statement rests on
no foundation whatever.

At the period when these portraits were executed
Mabuse lived at Middelburg. But he dwelt at
intervals elsewhere. When Philip of Burgundy
became bishop of Utrecht, and settled at Castle
Duurstede, in 1517, he was accompanied by Mabuse,
who helped to decorate the new palace of his
master. At Philip's death, in 1524, Mabuse
designed and erected his tomb in the church of
Wijk bij Duurstede. He finally retired to
Middelburg, where he took service with Philip's
brother, Adolph, lord of Veeren.

Carel van Mander|Van Mander's biography accuses
Mabuse of habitual drunkenness; yet it describes
the splendid appearance of the artist as, dressed
in gold brocade, he accompanied Lucas of Leyden on
a pleasure trip to Ghent, Mechelen and Antwerp in
1527. 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. The marriage of his
daughter with the painter Henry van der Heyden of
Leuven proves that he had a home, and did not live
habitually in taverns, as Van Mander suggests. His
death at Antwerp is recorded in the portrait
engraved by Jerome Cock.
----
commonscat|Jan Gossaert
1911