VERMEYEN, Jan Cornelisz.

The Spanish historian Felipe de Guevara is shown writing a letter and holding a pair of spectacles. His fur mantle and the cross on his tunic suggest his status and religious faith. Scholars and artists, like de Guevara and Vermeyen, were employed by the Habsburg rulers of Flanders and Spain. The letter on Guevara’s desk refers to his service at the Habsburg court in Brussels and includes the painting’s date.

The drawing style of this vividly rendered portrait of an elderly woman was in part determined by the artist’s experience as an etcher; however, the fixed structure of regular parallels and cross lines is rooted in engraving.

Jean II Carondelet (1469-1545), was a Burgundian cleric, politician, jurist and one of the most important advisors to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. He was a patron of Erasmus and a brother of Ferry Carondelet.

There are no records of where Vermeyen was trained as an artist. Opinions vary as to whether it was with Jan van Scorel, Bernard van Orley, or Jan Gossart. The early work by Vermeyen, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, establishes a link with Gossart: Vermeyen’s Judith recalls Gossart’s Magdalen in Boston, both exuding an unsettling sense of eroticism.

Jan Vermeyen was a typical, versatile, Renaissance artist, being a painter, a war reporter during Emperor Charles V’s campaigns in North Africa and Italy, a designer of tapestries and one of the first masters of etching.

This portrait shows the influence of Italian Mannerists’ portrait style. Its characteristic feature is the rhetorical gesture, so that the hand appears to come out towards the viewer.

Jan Vermeyen was a well-travelled man for his day. Around 1534 he went to Spain, and from there he joined up with Emperor Charles V’s army a year later as it sailed for North Africa and the Tunis campaign. There he made the drawings on which he based his cartoons for a series of monumental tapestries depicting the feats of arms in Tunis that were woven for Mary of Hungary in 1546-47.

Vermeyen’s travels had an impact on his art, as can be seen from this etchings such as the Seated Oriental Woman.

Although it is sometimes attributed to Jan Gossart, this painting was executed by one of his followers, probably by the young Vermeyen.

St Donatian (d. 390) is the patron saint of Bruges, where his relics were enshrined in the ninth century.

There are no records of where Vermeyen was trained as an artist. Opinions vary as to whether it was with Jan van Scorel, Bernard van Orley, or Jan Gossart. The Holy Family is certainly indebted to Gossart’s Virgin and Child in the Prado, particularly in the poses of the figures and the articulation of their bodies.

In this night scene - a novelty in painting at the time - Vermeyen succeeded in creating a dramatic effect. Candlelight plays over the faces and casts dark shadows. For the flames, Vermeyen used gold leaf. He was well ahead of his time: only around 1600 did the nocturn as a genre become more widely known through the Italian artist Caravaggio.

The subject of this candle-lit scene of a group of people sitting at table is very probably the calling of St John the Evangelist during the wedding feast at Cana. The painting depicts a moment that preceded the miracle. According to a late-medieval tradition, the wedding feast at Cana celebrated the marriage of John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalen. Seated in the centre behind the table are the beardless John and his bride, with the apostles Peter and Andrew to the left of them, at the moment when the meal is being served.

In the foreground the Virgin Mary turns to her right and grasps the shoulder of the servant who tells her that there is no wine. When she passes the news on to Christ he reacts dismissively. She then tells the servants to follow the instructions of her son, who tells them to fill the barrels with water, whereupon it turns into wine (John 2:3-10). At that moment John realises that there is a higher purpose to life and that he must follow Christ. He, ultimately followed by Mary Magdalen, opted for a spiritual rather than a physical marriage. Although the bridal couple can be identified as John and Mary Magdalen in several scenes of the marriage at Cana from Giotto to Hyeronimus Bosch, the barrels of water alluding to the miracle are always shown.

This attractive triptych comes from the chapel of the Holy Sacrament in St Michael’s Cathedral in Brussels, where Charles V’s collector-general, Jean Micault and his wife Livine Cats van Welle were buried. The altarpiece was probably commissioned by their second son Nicholas in their memory. This is why they appear with their children on the wings, he wearing the mantle of the treasurer of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with his armour perhaps alluding to his having been knighted, she dressed in a black robe and a fur. Both carry little crosses in their hands, which shows that they have died, as do the adolescent boy to the far left and the girl in the plumed hat on the right-hand wing.

The central panel illustrates the greatest of Christ’s miracles, the resurrection of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, after lying dead for four days. Apostles but also Jews, recognisable by their turbans, press round the tomb. Certain of them hold their noses or their throats, reminding us of Martha’s words: “Lord, by this time he stinketh” (John 11,39). Martha, helped by Mary, is relieving Lazarus, sitting on the edge of his tomb, of the winding cloth in which he had been buried. At the bottom of the tomb lies his brownish corpse. Lazarus is looking at Christ with stupor. The strongly silhouetted figures standing round exude a certain coldness appropriate to an epitaph. It is the background landscapes, however, that provide the exceptional feature in this triptych, with their unusual oriental d�cor, albeit particularly appropriate for a biblical subject. From left to right, we recognise the bay of Tunis, the arena and aqueduct of Carthage, a Tunisian mosque, an antique-looking temple and obelisk, the aqueduct of Segovia, a primitive basilica, a domed tomb and a curious sarcophagus-shaped building.

In fact Vermeyen had joined Charles V in Spain in ¹⁵³³⁄₃₄. From there he followed him to Tunis, where he was commissioned to immortalise the Emperor’s battle there. The many sketches he made on this voyage served in particular for an unequalled series of twelve tapestries, ordered by Mary of Hungary a few years before the triptych. By selecting a context referring to the imperial expeditions for this painting, Vermeyen probably wanted to emphasise the close connections between the Micault family and the Habsburgs.

This triptych comes from the chapel of the Holy Sacrament in St Michael’s Cathedral in Brussels, where Charles V’s collector-general, Jean Micault and his wife Livine Cats van Welle were buried. The altarpiece was probably commissioned by their second son Nicholas in their memory.

The picture shows the triptych when closed.