MOR VAN DASHORST, Anthonis

Anna of Austria (1549-1580) was Queen of Spain by marriage to her uncle, King Philip II of Spain. Her son was Philip III of Spain (1578-1621) who succeeded his father.

This portrait is the pendant of the portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham. Anne Fernely (d. 1596) was the wife of Sir Thomas Gresham since 1544. On the paintings, both Gresham and his wife are expensively, yet soberly dressed.

Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586), Comte de La Baume Saint Amour, was a Burgundian statesman, made a cardinal, who followed his father as a leading minister of the Spanish Habsburgs, and was one of the most influential European politicians during the time which immediately followed the appearance of Protestantism in Europe. He was also a notable art collector, the greatest private collector of his time, the friend and patron of Titian and Leoni and many other artists.

Granvelle, educated at Padua and at Louvain, was ordained priest and, in 1540, consecrated bishop of Arras. Pope Pius IV made him archbishop of Malines (1560) and cardinal (1561). In 1560 Philip II appointed Granvelle chief counselor to Margaret of Austria, regent in the Netherlands. His monarchism led him to clash with the Dutch leaders, Prince William the Silent and the counts of Egmont and Hoorn, all of whom opposed Philip’s policy of converting the Netherlands into a Spanish dependency, and the Dutch leaders eventually effected Philip’s removal of Granvelle (1564). Later Philip concluded that the Netherlands revolution never would have developed had he supported Granvelle.

From 1565 to 1579 Granvelle served in Italy as viceroy of Naples (1571-75) and as president of the Council for Italy (1575-79). In 1579 Philip appointed him secretary of state (Spain), in which capacity he campaigned against William and the Dutch Protestants and negotiated the union of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns.

Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586) was a minister of Charles V and the bishop of Arras.

Born in 1507 after the death of her father, Felipe el Hermoso, the younger sister of Carlos V married Juan III of Portugal in 1525 and died in 1578. Gifted with an energetic character, she took on the regency of Portugal in the name of her under-aged grandson, Sebasti�n.

Mor painted this more than half-length portrait during his stay in Portugal. It shows the queen standing next to a table, which Mor uses as a symbol of majesty, just as Titian did in his first portrait of Felipe II. The folded parchment on it alludes to her condition as ruler. Mor took pleasure in painting her sumptuous clothing and Portuguese headdress, as well as the jewels and fan, which are in keeping with her position.

Maximilian II (1527-1576) was the son of Ferdinand of Austria, then King of Romans and next emperor (1556-1564) of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire. He was educated in Spain alongside his cousin, the future Philip II, and from an early age practiced the profession of arms, later on entering combat on the side of Emperor Charles V (1519-1556) against the association of Protestant princes known as the Schmalkaldic League, which was defeated at the battle of M�hlberg. The monarch chose him as a husband for his daughter Maria of Austria. Maximilian and Maria married in 1548 and were regents of the Spanish kingdoms in the absence of the heir during his long journey around Italy, the Netherlands and Germany between 1548 and 1551. Chosen as King of Romans in 1562, he inherited the sovereignty of Bohemia that same year and was crowned king of Hungary in 1563. When Ferdinand I died in 1564 he acceded to the imperial throne, remaining there until his death in Regensburg in 1576. His rule was characterised by a particular policy of tolerance towards Protestantism.

This portrait, which forms a pair with one of his wife, was designed to be similar to that which Titian painted of Philip II in Milan in 1548, albeit reducing the space and adding a detailed description of the textures of all the motifs visible in the painting with an immaculate precision of detail. The future emperor is portrayed standing, full length and life size in a three-quarter position with his head turned to the left and silhouetted against a dark background, which enhances the volume of the figure. He carries a sword and is dressed in white with a rich leather travelling jacket and breeches; the black cap on his head is adorned with a feather and he wears the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. He holds his gloves in his right hand and leans his left forearm on a table with a green velvet covering on which rests a finely chiseled visored battle helmet adorned with a crest of reddish feathers.

Maria of Austria (1528-1603) was the daughter of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal. In 1548 she married her cousin, the Archduke Maximilian. She reigned as empress from 1564 to 1576, and in 1580 returned to Spain, entering the convent of Las Descalzas Reales (Madrid), where she remained until her death in 1603. This is a companion piece to a life-size, full-length portrait of her husband. Her arm rests on a table which, like the pedestal and the column, is a standard feature of royal portraits. Her reserved expression and ornate dress are also indicative of her rank.

Joanna of Austria (1535-73) was the daughter of Emperor Charles V, and sister of King Philip II of Spain. In 1552, she married her first cousin, the Portuguese Prince John Manuel (Joao Manuel). The prince died in January 1554, days before Joanna gave birth to their son, Sebasti�n, who would become King of Portugal from 1568 to 1578. In July 1554, Joanna returned to Spain to serve as regent in the name of her brother, Philip II, who was absent from Spain until September 1559. As she never again set foot in Portugal, the princess would only see her son in paintings and drawings sent from Lisbon.

Characterised by her strong religious convictions and influenced by the future St Francis Borgia, Joanna entered the Jesuit Order in 1554. In 1555 she founded the convent of the Order of Saint Clare known as Las Descalzas Reales (literally, discalced or barefoot royals) in Madrid, in the same residence in which she was born. She resided in the convent from 1564 until her death in 1573, and was buried there.

This portrait was made when she was no longer regent, during the Flemish painter Anthonis Mor’s second sojourn in Spain between September 1559 and October 1561. The princess commissioned this portrait personally. Mor’s full-length portrait presents Joanna standing in a three-quarter view, looking towards her right. She wears a black taffeta gown in accordance with her status as a widow, a white snood that gathers her hair behind, and a veil draped over her shoulders and tied in front. Hanging from the veil is a small golden pendant featuring a figure. Joanna’s sumptuous dress, jewellery, cordovan leather gloves and lace-trimmed handkerchief, all indicate her rank as a princess, while the empty chair on which she rests her right hand symbolises the throne.

Joanna’s stance is similar to that of her brother in Mor’s portrait in the palace of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Philip II in Armour 1557. Mor has placed Joanna in the close foreground, standing in the light before a dark background. The low angle from which she is framed and the slimness of her figure accentuate the sense of majesty in this portrait, which is one of the Flemish painter’s best.

The sitter of the painting is not identified. The big red cross on his chest shows that he belonged to the St James Order.

In the eighteenth century this unidentified lady was thought to be the Empress Isabel, wife of Carlos V. She was later groundlessly associated with Maria of Portugal, whom Mor portrayed in 1552 while she was engaged to Felipe II. The latter broke off the engagement to marry Mary Tudor.

This more than half-length portrait is of great technical quality. The feminine face, with its reserved expression, stands out against a dark background, as does the hand resting in front of her sumptuous black dress. The elegant artifice with which she grasps with two fingers the jewel hanging from her neck is in keeping with portraits Mor saw during his stay in Italy.

Margaret, Duchess of Parma (1522-1586) governor of the Netherlands from 1559 to 1567, was the illegitimate daughter of Charles V. Her mother, Johanna Maria van der Gheynst, a servant of Charles de Lalaing, Seigneur de Montigny, was a Fleming. In 1533 she was acknowledged by her father and allowed to assume the name Margaret of Austria.

The sitter is documented from 1544 as Pero Hern�ndez de la Cruz, known as Perej�n, one of the two ‘Pericos’ whose role at Court was to amuse the prince. The artist depicts Pejer�n full-length, life-size and in a three-quarter profile, standing before a dark background with no spatial references, a format subsequently adopted by Vel�zquez in Pablo de Valladolid. The fact that he occupies all the available foreground space - his right foot almost touching the lower edge of the canvas - makes it difficult to appreciate his actual size. Only the large head, short legs, and deformed right hand holding the pack of cards indicate his occupation, ‘the profession of jests’. With his characteristic objectivity and painstaking technique, Mor depicts Pejer�n dressed as a courtier with a black doublet and cap, white breeches and hose, slashed shoes and a sword at his waist.

Pero Hern�ndez de la Cruz, Perej�n, a servant of the Count of Benavente, enjoyed the favour of the future Philip II, taking part in many of the festivities organised by him and receiving suits of clothes and costly gifts from as early as 1544. Married and with children, Perej�n owned several houses in Benavente from where Prince Philip - en route to England to marry Mary Tudor - and his son Don Carlos saw five bulls in the ring in 1554 and attended the baptism of Perej�n’s son, whose godfather was the Duke of Alba.

The sitter of this portrait, Giovanni Battista di Castaldo, was an illustrious Neapolitan soldier who fought in the service of Charles V and took part in important military actions such as the Battle of Pavia and the victory at M�hlberg. He is shown standing with his sword at his side and the cross of the Order of Santiago on his breast. The dignity of his character, looking out at the viewer with a lofty and distant expression, is reflected in his pose and deportment as well as in his plain but luxurious dress.

The model is painted in three-quarter profile against a neutral background. His clothing is austere: a black pourpoint, a rose-purple gown and a small neck-ruff. Turning to the right, he possesses a certain natural authority. His face, with its lively and immediate brushwork, exudes an extraordinary presence, fixing the viewer directly with a penetrating, slightly worried look. We are in front of an intimate portrait, disturbed only slightly by a Latin inscription. Added later, this has the merit of identifying both the subject and the painter. The former is Hubert Goltzius, the latter Anthonis Mor, a painter attached to the service of Philip II.

Uncle of the famous Hendrick Goltzius and a pupil of Lambert Lombard from Liêge, Goltzius was a painter, engraver and humanist. Thanks to his Bruges patron Marcus Laurinus, a passionate student of archaeology, he was able to publish several works on ancient history and numismatics, a subject very popular among scholars and collectors of the time. It is precisely the publication of one of his books that is said to lie at the origin of the painting represented here. According to the biographer Van Mander, Mor proposed painting it for the scholar to thank him for the gift of a copy of his treatise Caesar Augustus, published in January 1574. By a happy coincidence, this work, carrying Goltzius’ dedication, is currently conserved in the Museum’s library.

This portrait of the numismatist is one of Mor’s last paintings. With its strong sense of humanity it stands out against the rest of his oeuvre, consisting essentially of dignified official portraits, often of princes and aristocrats from various European courts. The painter applied all his skill to this work, capturing his model’s facial expression with a few key features in a single sitting. Indeed, Mor is said to have painted it on the spur of the moment, in under an hour, without study or preliminary drawing, after a breakfast with his friend Goltzius. On 24 February 1574 the humanist wrote to Abraham Ortelius that he intended using the painting to illustrate one of his next editions. In this way, the effigy appears as an engraving in Sicilia et Magna Graecia, which came off the press in 1576, framed with the same inscription as the painting.

Companion-piece of the portrait of Philip II, it is a study to the knee-length portrait presently in the Prado, Madrid.

Queen Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, married Philip at the age of 37 for political reasons. The marriage did not last long due to the religious tensions between Philip and England.

This painting portrays the then prince Philip, future Philip II (1527-1598) between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five, dressed in a luxurious costume with slashed sleeves, a thick gold chain around his neck, from which hangs the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and a sword with a richly decorated hilt at his waist. (The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece is a Roman Catholic order of chivalry founded in Bruges by the Burgundian duke Philip the Good in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal.) His right hand rests on a table covered in a decorative pink velvet cloth; he holds his gloves in his left hand.

The English inscription in the upper left corner was painted at a later date and reveals the picture’s provenance from an aristocratic collection in England.

Anthonis Mor van Dashorst was above all a magnificent portraitist, working at the court of Charles V and Philip II in the Spanish Netherlands. A pupil of his uncle Jan van Scorel, from 1549 he enjoyed the protection of Cardinal Granvelle, with whom he travelled to Rome. This trip brought him into contact with the works of the great Cinquecento masters and with Mannerism. He combined the sharp eye for a close likeness characteristic of Netherlandish painting with the portrait style of Titian, which glorified the symbolic importance of the person portrayed. His works fuelled the spread of a new type of portraiture which was greatly esteemed in the royal houses of Europe, and in which the sitters, painted full-length and with the attributes of their rank, have an air of authority and dignity .

Anthonis Mor van Dashorst painted the portrait of King Philip II on a number of occasions. The tradition of court portraits stems back to this master, who defined the style that would be continued by his disciple Alonso S�nchez Coello and subsequently by the latter’s followers, until the arrival of Vel�zquez.

Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579) was the leading English merchant in Antwerp and also the English king’s financial agent in the Low Countries. He was the founder of the Royal Exchange and of Gresham college, London. His prominent social position explains why he had his portrait painted by Mor, who was court artist to Philip II. This Utrecht-born painter was noted for the accurate recording of detail in his portraits. He depicted Gresham as a strong, somewhat reserved personality. The pendant of this painting is the portrait of Anne Fernely, the wife of Gresham. On the paintings, both Gresham and his wife are expensively, yet soberly dressed.

William I, Prince of Orange, Count of Nassau (1533-1584) was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years’ War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648.

A wealthy nobleman, William originally served at the court of the Spanish regent. Unhappy with the lack of political power for the local nobility and the Spanish persecution of Dutch Protestants, William joined the Dutch uprising and turned against his former masters. The most influential and politically capable of the rebels, he led the Dutch to several military successes in the fight against the Spanish. Declared an outlaw by the Spanish king in 1580, he was assassinated by Balthasar G�rard in Delft at a time when William’s popularity was waning.

William of Orange is also widely known as William the Silent. There are several explanations for the origin of this nickname. The most common one is that he rarely spoke out clearly on controversial matters at the court or in public, or (by some accounts) even completely avoided speaking about such topics.

In the Netherlands, he is also known as the Vader des vaderlands, “Father of the fatherland”, and the Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus, was written in his honour.

On Mor’s portrait William of Orang-Nassau appears in the armour of a commander in the imperial army of Charles V. His appointment to this post in 1555 was probably the occasion for the painting of the portrait, as that date is shown in a small cartouche in the middle of the richly-worked breastplate. His military appearance is completed by a ceremonial helmet and the commander’s baton he carries in his right hand.

The painting represents Steven van Herwijck (c.1530- ¹⁵⁶⁵⁄₆₇).

The fact that the sitter is facing left, and has a little dog - a symbol of marital faithfulness - on her lap suggests that this portrait is one of a pair; the unidentified pendant would have depicted her husband. Dressed in the Flemish fashion of the 1560s, she occupies almost all vibrantly-lit space. Posed at an angle, her face is turned towards the viewer, at whom she gazes. This kind of bourgeois portrait, made popular by Mor, was soon adopted by Antwerp painters, and was more fully developed in the seventeenth century, especially in Holland.

Critics assume that this is a study (probably a copy) to a half-length portrait, presently in a private collection in England. The companion-piece of the painting depicts Queen Mary, the second wife of Philip II.

The painting represents Mary Tudor, the bride of Philip II, King of Spain. This is the masterpiece of the artist, painted in England.

Philip II and Mor became acquainted during the prince’s visit to the Netherlands in the early 1550s. In 1554, when Philip went to London for his marriage to Mary Tudor, he brought Mor to paint the queen’s portrait, a representative work that reveals the essence of his style. In keeping with the prevailing manner of court portraiture, Mor is concerned with physiognomic accuracy but not with expression. This is a reticent image that emphasizes the social distinction of the sitter instead of her personality, although it is subtly encoded with a complex set of allusions. However, the austerity is somewhat relieved by the attention paid to the costume and jewelry, which are rendered with a technique of dazzling exactitude.