Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen

Jan Vermeyen by Jan Wierix.

Portrait of the Marquis and Catholic Church Cardinal Mercurino Gattinara, Grand Chancellor of the Empire, by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen (c. 1530), on display at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, or Jan Mayo, or Barbalonga (c. 1500 – 1559) was a Dutch Northern Renaissance painter.

Biography

According to Karel van Mander he was born in Beverwijk in 1500 and was honored for his career in the service of Charles V.^[1] He was a friend of Jan van Scorel and his portrait was engraved by Jan Wierix for Dominicus Lampsonius.

Vermeyen was a painter and tapestry designer, probably a pupil of Jan Gossaert. About 1525 he became court painter to Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands, aunt of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at Mechelen and in 1535 he accompanied the Emperor Charles V, the nephew of the Archduchess, at the Conquest of Tunis. He "designed a set of twelve tapestries commemorating scenes from the campaign that would travel with Charles wherever he went, to bear witness to this triumph."^[2] The still existing painting of the Hafsid King of Tunis Moulay Hassan, whom Charles re-instated on his throne after ridding the city of the pirate Hayreddin Barbarossa, was painted by Vermeyen while there.

This journey supplied him with scenes for later works, including tapestries designed in 1545/48 for Charles V's sister Regent of Hungary, Mary of Hungary. He died in Brussels.

Many portraits are ascribed to him on very little evidence, according to modern scholars. He was followed by Willem de Pannemaker and Jan van Hemessen.^[3]

References

1. (Dutch) Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen in Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck, 1604, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
2. Crowley, Roger (2009). Empires of the Sea. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-8129-7764-6.
3. Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen in the RKD

Sources

• Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen on Artnet
• http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/vermeyen_jan.html
• Horn, Hendrick . J., Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, painter of Charles V and his conquest of Tunis, Paintings, Etchings, Drawings, Cartoons and Tapestries, 2 vols., Doornspijk, (1989).504 pp., + 340 ills. in b/w and 32 in col., 4to, orig. cloth/d-jacket.
• http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/vermeyen_jan_cornelisz_/artist/49833/

Further reading

• Ortiz, A. & Carretero, C.; et al. (1991). Resplendence of the Spanish monarchy : Renaissance tapestries and armor from the Patrimonio Nacional. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (see index)

External links

• Media related to Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen at Wikimedia Commons