Frans Floris, Frans Floris the Elder or Frans Floris de Vriendt (17 April 15191 October 1570) 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; ...
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 ...
, draughtsman, print artist and tapestry designer. He is mainly known for his
history painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...
s, allegorical scenes and portraits.
[Frans Floris]
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History He played an important role in the movement in
Northern Renaissance painting referred to as
Romanism. The Romanists had typically travelled to Italy to study the works of leading Italian
High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
artists such as
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
,
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
and their followers. Their art assimilated these Italian influences into the Northern painting tradition.
[Carl Van de Velde. "Frans Floris I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 March 2015]
Life
Frans Floris was born in
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, . He was the scion of a prominent artist family which originally went with the name ‘de Vriendt’. The earliest known ancestors of the Floris de Vriendt family, then still called only ‘de Vriendt’, were residents of
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
where they practiced the craft of stonemason and stonecutter which was passed on from father to son. One of Frans' ancestors became in 1406 a master of the
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
stonemasons guild. A family member, Jan Florisz. de Vriendt, left his native Brussels and settled in Antwerp in the mid-15th century. His patronymic name ‘Floris’ became the common family name in subsequent generations. The original form ‘de Vriendt’ can, however, still be found in official documents until the late 16th century.
[Carl Van de Velde. "Floris." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 March 2015]
Frans' brothers were prominent artists. The most famous one is
Cornelis who was an architect and sculptor and was one of the designers of the
Antwerp City Hall
The City Hall (Dutch: ) of Antwerp, Belgium, stands on the western side of Antwerp's Grote Markt ("Great Market Square"). Erected between 1561 and 1565 after designs made by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt and several other architects and artists, th ...
. Jacob Floris was a painter of stained-glass windows and Jan Floris was a potter.
[ Jan traveled to Spain to practice his art there and died young.
Documentary evidence about the life of Frans Floris is scarce. Most of what we know about the youth and training of Frans Floris is based on the early biographer ]Karel van Mander
Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembe ...
's biography of the artist. At ten pages long it is one of the most detailed biographies in van Mander's '' Het Schilder-boeck'' published in 1604. According to van Mander, Frans Floris was the son of the stonecutter Cornelis I de Vriendt (died 1538). Like his brothers, Frans began as a student of sculpture, but later he gave up sculpture for painting. Floris went to Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
where he studied with the prominent painter Lambert Lombard
Lambert Lombard (c. 1505 – August 1566) was a Renaissance painter, architect and theorist for the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. During his career he worked for Jan Gossaert in Middelburg and trained Frans Floris.
Biography
Lombard was bor ...
. The choice for Lombard as a teacher was surprising since Antwerp was a cultural centre with many outstanding painters. He may have chosen Lombard as his brother Cornelis was good friends with Lombard, whom he had met in Rome around 1538. It is also possible that Frans trained as a painter in Antwerp before studying under Lombard. Floris became a master in 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 1539–40.[
Lombard encouraged Frans Floris to study in Italy. He traveled to Rome probably as early as 1541 or 1542 and became fascinated with Italian contemporary painting (particularly Michelangelo and Raphael) and the Classical sculpture and art of Rome. He kept a notebook of sketches, which his pupils would later etch. Floris visited other cities in Italy including ]Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...
and Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
.[
Upon his return to Antwerp around 1545, Frans Floris opened a workshop on the Italian model.][ He became the leading history painter and was called the ‘Flemish Raphael’. He enjoyed the patronage of prominent personalities such as the wealthy Antwerp banker ]Niclaes Jonghelinck
Nicolaes Jonghelinck (1517–1570) was a merchant banker and art collector in Antwerp. He is best known for his collection of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Frans Floris. His brother was the sculptor Jacques Jonghelinck.
In the arch ...
for whose house he painted a series of ten compositions on the legend of Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
and seven compositions on the liberal arts. He also painted 14 large panels for the duke of Aarschot's palace of Beaumont. Local nobility including the knights of the Golden Fleece
In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece ( el, Χρυσόμαλλον δέρας, ''Chrysómallon déras'') is the fleece of the golden-woolled,, ''Khrusómallos''. winged ram, Chrysomallos, that rescued Phrixus and brought him to Colchis, where P ...
, the Prince of Orange
Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by sovereigns in the Netherlands.
The title ...
and the Counts of Egmont and Horn (later the leaders of the Dutch Revolt
The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) (Historiography of the Eighty Years' War#Name and periodisation, c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and t ...
) visited Floris at his home, attracted by his artistic reputation as well as his ability to talk with ‘great insight and judgment on any topic’.[ Frans Jozef van den Branden, ', Antwerp: J.-E. Buschmann, 1883] He also moved in the circle of the leading humanists
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
such as Abraham Ortelius
Abraham Ortelius (; also Ortels, Orthellius, Wortels; 4 or 14 April 152728 June 1598) was a Brabantian cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer, conventionally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the ''Theatrum Orbis Terraru ...
, Christophe Plantin
Christophe Plantin ( nl, Christoffel Plantijn; – 1 July 1589) was a French Renaissance humanist and book printer and publisher who resided and worked in Antwerp.
Life
Plantin was born in France, probably in Saint-Avertin, near the city of ...
, Lucas de Heere
Lucas de Heere (1534 – 29 August 1584) was a Flemish painter, poet and writer. His costume books and portraits are a valuable resource in depicting 16th-century clothing.
Biography
Lucas de Heere, a Protestant, was born in Ghent, the ...
, Lambert Lombard, Dominicus Lampsonius
Dominicus Lampsonius (Latinised form of Dominique Lampsone) (1532, in Bruges – 1599, in Liège) was a Flemish humanist, poet and painter. A secretary to various Prince-Bishops of Liège, he maintained an extensive correspondence with humanist ...
and Hieronymus Cock
Hieronymus Cock, or Hieronymus Wellens de Cock (1518 – 3 October 1570) was a Flemish painter and etcher as well as a publisher and distributor of prints. . This group of intellectuals and artists was the first to develop theories on art and the role of artists in the Low Countries. In 1549 Floris was commissioned by the Antwerp city authorities to design the decorations for the Joyous entry
A Joyous Entry ( nl, Blijde Intrede, Blijde Inkomst, or ; ) is the official name used for the ceremonial royal entry, the first official peaceable visit of a reigning monarch, prince, duke or governor into a city, mainly in the Duchy of Braban ...
into Antwerp of Charles V of Spain and the Infante Philip.[
His brother Cornelis designed a palace for him in Antwerp with a façade of blue limestone and with luxurious decorations such as gilded leather wall-coverings in the bedroom.][Frans Floris]
in Karel van Mander
Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembe ...
, ''Het Schilderboeck'', 1604 The façade itself was designed by Frans. His design program for the façade was intended to illustrate the high status of artists in society. He painted the façade with seven personifications symbolizing the qualities and skills of an artist: Accuracy (Diligentia), Practice (Usus), Labor (Labor), Diligence (Industria), Experience (Experientia), Praise (Lauda) and Architecture (Architectura). Above the doorway of the house a relief depicted the sciences (the seven liberal arts together with painting and architectures) as the principal components of human society. The unknown monogrammist TG portrayed the façade in 1576 in a print. Jozef Linnig made a drawing of the palace in the 19th century but by that time most of the decoration of the façade had disappeared. Floris expressed similar ideas in his composition ''The awakening of the Arts'' (Museo de Arte de Ponce
Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) is an art museum located on Avenida Las Américas in Ponce, Puerto Rico.Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Tourism Company. Ven al Sur, page 20. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2003. It houses a collection of European a ...
).
In 1547 Floris married Clara Boudewijns and the couple had one daughter and two sons. The sons Frans and Baptist were later trained as artists by their father. Baptist died young while Frans moved to Italy where he had a successful career.[
Frans Floris was known to be hardworking as is testified by his motto: ''Als ick werck, dan leef ick: als ick spelen gae, dan sterf ick.'' This means "When I work, I live: when I play, I die." Van Mander recounts that Floris nearly always had a large commission in his workshop on which he would work late at night, and that when he dozed off his pupils would take off his shoes and stockings and put him to bed before they left. Van Mander cites ]Frans Menton
Fransoys or Frans Menton (c.1550–1615) was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter.
Biography
Little is known of his early life, but according to Van Mander in 1604, he spoke with him about his training as a pupil of Frans Floris in his workshop ...
who asserted Floris was loved by his pupils for allowing them more freedom than other Antwerp masters. When a small group of his pupils met up for a reunion after his death they were able to compile a list of 120 of his pupils.
Van Mander recounts that at the end of his life Floris became heavily indebted and started drinking.[ The debts were likely related to his high costs of living as well as the impact of the '']Beeldenstorm
''Beeldenstorm'' () in Dutch and ''Bildersturm'' in German (roughly translatable from both languages as 'attack on the images or statues') are terms used for outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th centu ...
'' or Iconoclastic Fury that commenced from the 1560s and reached its peak in 1566. During the period of iconoclasm
Iconoclasm (from Ancient Greek, Greek: grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, wikt:κλάω, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών + wi ...
, Catholic art and many forms of church fittings and decoration were destroyed by nominally Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
Protestant crowds as part of the Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
. It is said Floris never recovered from the shock of seeing his artworks destroyed. Instead, he found himself in a downward spiral in both his personal and professional affairs. His disaffection was so great that he even refused to restore his own works damaged during the Beeldenstorm. He virtually stopped painting after 1566 and his place as the leading history painter in the Habsburg Netherlands was taken by a younger generation of artists among whom became the most prominent.
Van Mander recounts that while working on a large commission for the grand prior of Spain, Floris became ill and died on 1 October 1570 in Antwerp. His paintings for the grand prior were finished by his studio assistants Frans Pourbus the Elder
Frans Pourbus the ElderGaëlle Brackez, ''Frans Pourbus de oudere (1545-1581) Een blik op zijn leven en oeuvre volume i: tekst'', Masterproef voorgelegd aan de Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte, Vakgroep Kunst -, Muziek- en Theaterwetenschappen ...
and Chrispijn van den Broeck. Poems were written about him by Dominicus Lampsonius
Dominicus Lampsonius (Latinised form of Dominique Lampsone) (1532, in Bruges – 1599, in Liège) was a Flemish humanist, poet and painter. A secretary to various Prince-Bishops of Liège, he maintained an extensive correspondence with humanist ...
and the poet-painter Lucas de Heere
Lucas de Heere (1534 – 29 August 1584) was a Flemish painter, poet and writer. His costume books and portraits are a valuable resource in depicting 16th-century clothing.
Biography
Lucas de Heere, a Protestant, was born in Ghent, the ...
, who according to van Mander, was his pupil.
Pupils
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 ...
identifies the following pupils of Frans Floris: Joos de Beer (later the teacher of Abraham Bloemaert
Abraham Bloemaert (25 December 1566 – 27 January 1651) was a Dutch painter and printmaker in etching and engraving. He was initially working in the style of the " Haarlem Mannerists", but in the 16th century altered his style in line with the ...
), George Boba, Hendrick van den Broeck
Hendrick van den Broeck or Arrigo Fiammingo (c. 1530 – 28 September 1597) was a Flemish painter, fresco painter, glass painter and sculptor of the late- Renaissance or Mannerist period. After training in Flanders, he travelled to Italy w ...
, Marten van Cleve
Marten van Cleve the Elder (Antwerp, c. 1527 – Antwerp, before 24 November 1581) was a Flemish painter and draftsman active in Antwerp between 1551 and 1581.Carl Van de Velde. "Marten van Cleve I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxfo ...
, Ambrosius Francken, Frans Francken I
Frans Francken I or Frans Francken the Elder (1542, Herentals – 1616, Antwerp) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish painter who was one of the principal painters in Antwerp during the Counter-Reformation.[Frans Menton
Fransoys or Frans Menton (c.1550–1615) was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter.
Biography
Little is known of his early life, but according to Van Mander in 1604, he spoke with him about his training as a pupil of Frans Floris in his workshop ...]
(known for schutterstuk
Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces w ...
ken in Alkmaar), and Isaac Claesz van Swanenburg.[ Van Mander lists 26 pupils of Floris, but he may have had as many as 120 assistants. Van Mander's list includes Chrispijn van den Broeck, Joris van Ghent (who served Philip II of Spain), Marten (and his brother ]Hendrick Hendrick may refer to:
People
* Hendrick (given name), alternative spelling of the Dutch given name Hendrik
* Hendrick (surname)
* King Hendrick (disambiguation), one of two Mohawk leaders who have often been conflated:
** Hendrick Tejonihokarawa ( ...
) van Cleve, Lucas de Heere
Lucas de Heere (1534 – 29 August 1584) was a Flemish painter, poet and writer. His costume books and portraits are a valuable resource in depicting 16th-century clothing.
Biography
Lucas de Heere, a Protestant, was born in Ghent, the ...
, Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort, Thomas van Zirickzee, Simon van Amsterdam, Isaac Claesz van Swanenburg (spelled Isaack Claessen Cloeck), Frans Menton, George Boba, the three Francken brothers Jeroen, Frans and Ambrosius, Joos de Beer, Hans de Maier van Herentals
Herentals () is a city in the province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the city of Herentals proper and the towns of Morkhoven and . In 2021, Herentals had a total population of 28.194. The total area is . Saint Waltrude is the patron saint ...
, Apert Francen van Delft, Lois van Brussel, Thomas van Coelen, Hans Daelmans van Antwerpen, Evert van Amersfoort, Herman van der Mast, Damiaen van der Goude, Jeroen van Vissenaken, Steven Croonenborgh uyt den Hage, and Dirck Verlaen van Haerlem.
The long list of pupils and assistants shows that Frans Floris had upon his return to Antwerp adopted the studio practices that he had witnessed in Italy. He relied on a large number of assistants who came from all over the southern and northern Netherlands and even Germany. Floris invented and developed the use of study heads, which were life-size representations of people's heads, which he painted in oil on panel. These were then given to his assistants, either for literal transcription or for freer adaptations. His assistants' role is not always clear and may have ranged from painting after his study heads to adding landscape backgrounds. They also copied his compositions, either in paint or on paper, for reproduction by engravers.[
]
Work
General
Comparatively few of his works have survived, possibly because many were destroyed during the iconoclastic
Iconoclasm (from Ancient Greek, Greek: grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, wikt:κλάω, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών + wi ...
destructions in Antwerp in the second half of the sixteenth century. The earliest extant canvas by Floris is the ''Mars and Venus ensnared by Vulcan'' in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie (, ''Painting Gallery'') is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (''Staatliche Museen zu Berlin'') is displayed. It was first opened in ...
(1547).
Frans Floris is mainly known for his altarpieces, compositions with mythological and allegorical themes and to a lesser extent, for his portraits. He played an important role in introducing the genre of mythological and allegorical subject-matter into Flanders. He was one of the first Netherlandish artists to travel to Italy and study the latest developments in art as well as the Classical relics of Rome. The principal contemporary influences were Michelangelo from whom he borrowed the heroic treatment of the nude and Raphael whom he emulated by developing a ‘relief-like’ idiom. Floris did, however, not abandon the traditional Netherlandish technique of oil paint, which allowed him to fuse its detailed, descriptive properties with his radically new visual language, in which embellishments were reduced to a minimum and the nude played a prominent role.
Floris’ early work of around 1545 shows most clearly the influence of his Italian sojourn. It shows similarities with the work of other Romanists such as Lambert Lombard and Pieter Coecke van Aelst
Pieter Coecke van Aelst or Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder ( Aalst, 14 August 1502 – Brussels, 6 December 1550) was a Flemish painter, sculptor, architect, author and designer of woodcuts, goldsmith's work, stained glass and tapestries. . Later his style became increasingly monumental. His compositional skills improved in that he showed more skill in the arrangement of the figures. After 1560 his work became more Mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...
and the sculptural handling of the figures gave way to a more painterly approach. His palette evolved towards the monochrome. Later he may have been influenced by the school of Fontainebleau
The School of Fontainbleau (french: École de Fontainebleau) (c. 1530 – c. 1610) refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming the No ...
as his figures became more elegant and the works more refined.[
Just like his brother Cornelis was able to exert influence on contemporary architecture across the borders of Flanders through the medium of the Antwerp publishers, Floris’ work found wide circulation through engravings made by the leading Antwerp engravers.][ ]Hieronymus Cock
Hieronymus Cock, or Hieronymus Wellens de Cock (1518 – 3 October 1570) was a Flemish painter and etcher as well as a publisher and distributor of prints. , Philip Galle
Philip (or Philips) Galle (1537 – March 1612) was a Dutch publisher, best known for publishing old master prints, which he also produced as designer and engraver. He is especially known for his reproductive engravings of paintings.
Life
Gall ...
and Cornelis Cort
Cornelis Cort (c. 1533 – c. 17 March 1578) was a Dutch engraver and draughtsman. He spent the last 12 years of his life in Italy, where he was known as ''Cornelio Fiammingo''.
Biography
Born in Hoorn or Edam, Cort may have been a pupil of ...
were the principal engravers involved in this effort but others such as Johannes Wierix
Jan Wierix or Johannes Wierix (1549 – c. 1620) was a Flemish engraver, draughtsman, and publisher. He was a very accomplished engraver who made prints after his own designs as well as designs by local and foreign artists.
Together with ot ...
, Balthazar van den Bos, Pieter van der Heyden, Frans Huys, Dirck Volckertsz. Coornhert and Jan Sadeler I also made engravings after the works of Frans Floris. Floris also made original designs for series of prints engraved in Antwerp.[
]
Portraits
He was a very skilled portraitist but, possibly because of the lower ranking of portraiture in the hierarchy of pictorial genres, he painted only a few (possibly about 12) portraits. He is still regarded as an innovator of the genre as he introduced a new level of expressiveness and accentuated psychological presence. Floris pioneered two types of images in the late 1540s: expressive portraits of individual sitters and head studies on panels. By 1562, Floris’ distinctive head studies had become a form of authorial performance, which bore witness to his creative genius and the workshop practices that he had imported from Italy. While the head studies were made for his own use as well as for the pupils and assistants in his workshop, some were clearly also produced as artworks in their own right. The rapid, expressive brushwork of these panels suggests that he painted some heads as creative studies and thus anticipate in a certain way the tronie
A tronie is a type of work common in Dutch Golden Age painting and Flemish Baroque painting that depicts an exaggerated or characteristic facial expression. These works were not intended as portraits but as studies of expression, type, physiognom ...
s of 17th-century artists. These studies became collector's items for local art lovers. The head studies testify to the self-conscious artistic culture of Antwerp, where they were valued for their authorship rather than their preparatory value.
Frans Floris made a self-portrait, the original of which has been lost and which is known through a copy in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...
. He included self-portraits in some of his religious works such as the composition '' Rijckart Aertsz as Saint Luke'' in which he included himself as the pigment grinder and in the composition '' Allegory of the Trinity'' (Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
) where beneath Christ's outstretched right arm he painted his self-portrait, which appears out of scale with the other heads around him. The inclusion of his portrait in the latter composition suggests that the painting held a highly personal meaning for the artist. It has been observed that after the iconoclasm of the Beeldenstorm Flemish artists started including their portraits in religious compositions in order to show their personal commitment to the particular message that the compositions were trying to convey.
Floris painted some family portraits. An example is the ''Family portrait'' in the Museum Wuyts-Van Campen en Baron Caroly, Lier, which is dated 1561. It was traditionally believed to depict the Berchem family, a prominent family. However, this is no longer accepted unanimously. The painting has two inscriptions, one in the painting itself, the other on its original frame. The first inscription appears on a portrait hanging on the wall behind the figures. It states that the man depicted in the portrait died on 10 January 1559, aged 58 years. The second is the Latin text written at the top and bottom of the frame of the painting. It translates as follows: "As in life there can be nothing happier than a marriage in unison and a bed without discord, there is nothing more pleasant than to see one's offspring in unison enjoy peace with an immaculate mind, 1561". The painting thus simultaneously served as a memento of the deceased father and an expression of the feelings of togetherness of his descendants. Floris depicts all the members of the family performing and attending a concert of music, which emphasized this notion of 'concordia', i.e. the harmony within the family.Van de Velde Carl, 'Frans Floris, ''De familie van Berchem''
' at Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen
References
Sources
* Jeroen Vandommele, 'Als in een spiegel, Vrede, kennis en gemeenschap op het Antwerpse Landjuweel van 1561', Hilversum
* Edward H. Wouk, ''Frans Floris’s Allegory of the Trinity (1562) and the Limits of Tolerance'', Art History 10/2014; 38(1), p. 39-76
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Floris, Frans
Flemish history painters
Flemish portrait painters
Flemish Mannerist painters
Flemish tapestry artists
Artists from Antwerp
Painters from Antwerp
1517 births
1570 deaths