Ambrosius Benson (, in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

1550, in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

) was an Italian painter who became a part of the

Northern Renaissance The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renais ...

. While many surviving paintings have been attributed, there is very little known of him from records, and he tended not to sign his work. He is believed to be responsible for mainly religious art, but also painted portraits on commission. He sometime painted from classical sources, often setting the figures in modern-dress, or a contemporary domestic setting. In his lifetime he was successful; he had a large workshop, his work was sold internationally and he was especially popular in Spain. Benson became popular as a source for

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking i ...

with 19th-century painters, who are sometimes known as the "followers of Benson". In particular his many variations of the Magdalen and Sibilla Persica were further copied and became popular with contemporary buyers.

Life

Although Ambrosius Benson (or Ambrose Benzone, as he is named by an early scholar in deference to his Lombardian origin) was Italian by birth, scholars consider him a painter of the Flemish school. Typical of the itinerant manner of many painters of the time, he moved to

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

and served his apprenticeship with the

Early Netherlandish Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

painter

Gerard David Gerard David (c. 1460 – 13 August 1523) was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color. Only a bare outline of his life survives, although some facts are known. He may have been the Meester ...

. He later became a

naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

of Bruges.Rundle, 1999 Benson worked as a

journeyman A journeyman, journeywoman, or journeyperson is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that fie ...

before he was made

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

in 1519 and became a member of the

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometim ...

of painters and saddle makers. He eventually became a dean and then a governor of the guild. He married Anna Ghyselin, and had two sons with her, Jan and

Willem Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, ...

, both of whom became painters. He later remarried and had a daughter Anna. He is believed to have had at least two other daughters from extramarital affairs. Benson came into dispute with Gerard around 1519, over a number of paintings and drawings Benson had created—including a book of studies for heads and nudes as well as various patterns—in the older master's workshop without his assistance. David refused to return the material, and after Benson pursued him legally, served time in prison for his appropriation. Sibilla Persica after Ambrosius Benson 19th C

Sibilla Persica after Ambrosius Benson 19th C

He served as head of the

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 iden ...

from 1537 to 1539 and 1543 to 1544. Much of his work was at one time attributed to a Spanish artist known only as the Master of Segovia; it is now believed they were the same person. This is surely the reason why many of his best works can be found in Spanish museums, churches and cathedrals (

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

Bilbao Fine Arts Museum The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (Spanish: ''Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao'', Basque language, Basque: ''Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa'') is an art museum located in the city of Bilbao, Spain. The building of the museum is located entirely inside the ci ...

, Segovia and Burgos Cathedrals, among others). Perhaps under the influence of

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

's 15th-century ''

The Magdalen Reading ''The Magdalen Reading'' is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid-15th-century oil-on-panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The panel, originally oak, was completed some time between 1435 and 143 ...

'', Benson was one of the first artists to popularise images of women reading. It became a motif for him, and he painted the scene many times in his images of

Mary Magdalen Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

and the Sybil Persica, whom he treated as almost interchangeable.Sibilla Persica
.

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. Retrieved 29 December 2010 One ''The Magdalen Reading'' by Benson is held in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

, London.

Gallery

File:3196 Print 12220kopie.jpg, ''Portrait of Jean Wyts,'' 1520–1530, The Phoebus Foundation File:Ambrosius Benson - La Descente de Croix.JPG, ''The Descent from the Cross'', 1528 File:The Magdalen Reading - Ambrosius Benson (NG655).jpg, ''The Magdalen Reading'', 1535 File:Portrait of Anne Stafford.jpg, ''Portrait of Anne Stafford'', 1535 File:Virgin with the Pear Ambrosius Benson.jpg, ''Virgin with Pear'', date unknown File:Virgin and Child with Saints Ambrosius Benson.jpg, ''Virgin and Child with Saints'', date unknown File:Ambrosius Benson - Deipara Virgo.JPG, ''Deipara Virgo'', date unknown File:Ambrosius Benson - Elegant couples dancing in a landscape leo sobre tabla museo de bellas artes de la universidad de utah utah usa.jpg, ''Elegant couples dancing in a landscape'', date unknown. Currently exhibited at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA).

Notes

References

Sources

* Max Jakob Friedländer, Friedländer, Max J. "Ambrosius Benson as a Portrait Painter". "Yearbook of the Prussian art collections", 1910. 31

External links

Gerard David: purity of vision in an age of transition
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Benson (see index) * Sacha Zdanov, "Benson, Ambrosius", ''Nouvelle Biographie nationale'' 13, Brussels: Académie royale de Belgique, 2016, p. 19-2

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Ambrosius 15th-century births 1550 deaths 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Early Netherlandish painters Flemish Mannerist painters Year of birth uncertain Artists from Milan Painters from Ferrara Artists from Bruges