Adriaen van Overbeke

Adriaen van Overbeke, Adrian van Overbeck and Adriaen van Overbeke (fl 1508 – 1529) was a Flemish Renaissance painter in the style of Antwerp Mannerism. He operated a large workshop with an important output of altarpieces, which were mainly exported to Northern France, the Rhineland and Westphalia. His known works were predominantly polychromed wooden altarpieces with painted shutters, which were created through a collaboration between painters and sculptors.

The artist has only recently been identified with the anonymous master who was given the notname 'Master of the Crucifixion of Antwerp' by Max Jakob Friedländer.

Life Very little is known with certainty about Adriaen van Overbeke's origins. Some art historians have speculated that he may be the Ariaen who is mentioned as a pupil of Quentin Matsys in the records of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1495. He was registered as a master in the records of the Guild from 1508. He lived in a residence called "Schylt van Engelant" ('Shield of England') in the Keizerstraat in Antwerp.

Maria Cleophas with children, from St. Anne Altar, St. Martin's Church, Euskirchen

He was paid for supplying a carved wood altarpiece (destroyed) for the Hospice of Our Lady in Lille in 1509. He did not undertake the commission himself but as a dealer as he sourced the sculpted elements and the painted wings out to other artists. In 1513 he is documented working on a commission for a retable for the Propsteikirche St. Mariä Geburt ('Provost Church of the Birth of Saint Mary') in Kempen (North Rhine-Westphalia). The retable was ordered by the local Annenbruderschaft ('Brotherhood of St Anne') and depicts scenes from the life of Saint Anne. The work is still on the high altar of the Propsteikirche. The painted wings of the altarpiece are among the earliest firmly dated paintings in the style of the Antwerp Mannerists and may be attributed to Adriaen van Overbeke himself or his assistants. The carved sections were probably the work of wood-carvers employed in his workshop.

In 1529 he was commissioned to paint an Altar of St Joseph for a patron in Kempen (now lost). In the same year, the Brotherhood of St Nicholas in Kempen paid him for repairs to their Nicholas altar, which therefore can be assumed to have been his own work. In the same year, he bought gold leaf for three retables from the goldsmith Willem van Schorisse in Bruges. It is not known whether these retables were even made. In 1529 he bought gold leaf for three unknown retables from the goldsmith Willem van Schorisse in Bruges. In 1529 he agreed with the dealer Gheerarde van Sulps residing in Aachen to be his exclusive supplier in Aachen for a period of six years. and the painted panels of the Klepping Altar (–1525) in the Petrikirche (St Peter's Church) in Soest, Germany.

Van Overbeke is considered a representative of Antwerp Mannerism. The term Antwerp Mannerism was coined by Friedländer in the early 20th century to refer to a transitory phase in Netherlandish art from the late Gothic to works inspired by the Italian Renaissance. The terms "Manier" and "Manierist" were used by Friedländer to refer to the original even unusual motifs in the body of work categorized under this style. The terms carried a pejorative connotation as these works were regarded as inferior to work produced by Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Quentin Matsys and other contemporaries. These figures were usually depicted in agitated poses amidst architectural ruins. The earlier works included Gothic architecture but in later works Renaissance structures became prevalent. Most of the artists of Antwerp Mannerism have remained anonymous and only some of the artists have been identified. They include Jan de Beer and the Master of 1518 (possibly Jan Mertens or Jan van Dornicke). Adriaen van Overbeke himself was only recently identified with the anonymous master who was given the notname 'Master of the Crucifixion of Antwerp' by Friedländer.