Erasmus Quellinus I or Erasmus Quellinus the Elder (alternate names: Erasmus Quellinck, Erasme Quellin (I)) (

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; french: link=no, Saint-Trond ; li, Sintruin ) is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium, and has over 41,500 inhabitants, which makes it one of the largest cities in Limburg. The muni ...

, 1584 -

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, 22 January 1640) was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

best known for classically inspired

ornamentation An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

work and copies after the

antique An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

. He was the founder of an important Antwerp dynasty of artists.

Life

Details of his early life and training have not survived. He became master of the Antwerp

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was ide ...

in 1606. He married Betje van Uden, the sister of the painter

Lucas van Uden Lucas van Uden (18 October 1595 – 4 November 1672) was a leading Flemish landscape painter, draughtsman and engraver, who lived and worked in Antwerp. He was a leading landscape painter who collaborated with various local figure painters. ...

. The couple had three sons:

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

, who would become a

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and engraver, Artus, who would follow in his father's footsteps and become a sculptor, and

Hubertus Hubertus or Hubert ( 656 – 30 May 727 A.D.) was a Christian saint who became the first bishop of Liège in 708 A.D. He is the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians and metalworkers. Known as the "Apostle of the Ardennes", he was ...

, who became an engraver and painter. His daughter Cornelia Quellinus married his pupil, the sculptor

Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder Pieter Verbrugghen I (alternative spellings: ''Pieter Verbruggen I'', ''Peter van der Brugghen I'', ''Pieter van der Brugghen I'', ''Peter Verbrugghen I'', ''Peeter Verbrugghen I'') (1615, Antwerp – 1686, Antwerp) was a Flemish sculptor from th ...

.Hans Vlieghe and iris Kockelbergh. "Quellinus."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. March 23. 2014 He was the teacher of Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder, Melchior Charles, Wallerant Vaillant, Joos Sterck (1607); Rombout Claes (1609), Melchior van der Lanen (1612), Hans Franscoys (1614), Hans Bernaert (or Beernart) (1615) and Christoffel de la Fontaine (1633–34).Biographical details
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

Work

His work is not well known since only a few of his works have survived. Erasmus is primarily known as a sculptor who drew inspiration from antiquity. He worked in the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

style although his later work shows a development towards early

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. The bulk of his commissions consisted of the renovation and replacement of church furniture that had been destroyed during the

iconoclastic Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...

troubles of the 16th century. Besides decorative work, he is known to have made individual statues, none of which have survived. In 1635 he was awarded the contract to make the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

of the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Antwerp. This work is an example of early Baroque in Antwerp and shows Erasmus’ mastery of balance and symmetry, even though there is no sense of realism. The

in the St. Gummarus Church in Lier is another of his known commissions.Pulpit in the St. Gummarus Church in Lier
He made the original design for the pulpit, which, after his death, was somewhat changed by his son Artus while Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder executed the design.Helena Bussers, ''De baroksculptuur en het barok''
at Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen

References

Sources

*Hans Vlieghe, "Erasmus Quellinus I," ''Grove Art Online''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, ovember 9, 2007 *Hans Vlieghe (1998). ''Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585-1700''. Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Quellinus I, Erasmus 17th-century Flemish sculptors 1580s births 1640 deaths Painters from Antwerp