Jan-Erasmus Quellinus

Jan-Erasmus Quellinus (Antwerp, 1634–Mechelen, 11 March 1715) was a Flemish Baroque painter of large altarpieces and histories influenced by Paolo Veronese and his father Erasmus Quellinus the Younger.

Biography

Born into a family of artist that included his grandfather Erasmus Quellinus I, father, and uncle Artus Quellinus I, Jan-Erasmus's early career was shaped by a trip to Italy. Drawings from this period show careful study of the late Italian Renaissance painter Veronese. Time in and around Venice in 1660–1661 also introduced him the architecture of Palladio that informed decorative motifs used in his later compositions. Quellinus also spent time in Rome, where he was a member of the Bentvueghels known as "Cederboom" (cedar tree). He was back in Antwerp in 1661, when he became a master in the city's guild of St. Luke. Shortly afterwards he married the daughter of David Teniers the younger, Cornelia.

Quellinus painted large altarpieces in Antwerp, including several works for the city's St. Michael's Abbey, and for churches and abbeys in Brabant. In 1680 he travelled to Vienna, where he was court painter to Leopold I of Austria. Among the works made in that capacity were fifteen ceiling paintings depicting the "Life of Charles V (1681).

ources

* Hans Vlieghe, "Jan-Erasmus Quellinus," "Grove Art Online". Oxford University Press, [November 8, 2007] .
* Hans Vlieghe (1998). "Flemish art and architecture, 1585-1700". Pelican history of art. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300070381