The Punishment of Midas

Hendrick de Clerck was a Brussels painter of small, finely finished pictures of biblical, allegorical and mythological subjects. His elegant figures and bright colours belong to late Mannerism, and he often worked with Jan Brueghel the Elder, who painted the landscapes around his figures. He was born in Brussels around 1560 and may have trained with Maerten de Vos in Antwerp. He probably travelled in Italy in the late 1580s. From 1594 he was court painter to Archduke Ernest and later to Archdukes Albert and Isabella, and he designed decorations for Albert’s entry into Brussels in 1596. He also painted altarpieces for Brussels churches. His reputation faded as Rubens rose after 1612. He died in Brussels in 1630. In The Nuptials of Thetis and Peleus, look at the crowd of gods at the feast, each one carefully placed.