Michiel van Coxcie

Michiel Coxcie was called the Flemish Raphael by his contemporaries. He spent years in Rome studying the Italian High Renaissance and brought it home to the Netherlands: clear compositions, muscular, idealised figures and calm, balanced space, combined with Flemish precision.

He was born in Mechelen in 1499 and lived in Rome from about 1527 to 1539, where he painted frescoes in the church of Santa Maria dell’Anima. Back in Flanders he became court painter to Emperor Charles V and then to Philip II of Spain. For Philip he made a full copy of the Van Eyck brothers’ Ghent Altarpiece. He also designed tapestries, including sets for the Polish royal court.

Original Sin and Killing of Abel show his Italian training in the anatomy of the nudes. He lived to about ninety three and died in 1592.