Gillis Mostaert

Gillis Mostaert the Elder (27 or 28 November 1528 – 28 December 1598) was a Flemish Renaissance painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp in the second half of the 16th century. He was a versatile artist who worked in various genres including landscape, genre and history painting. Gillis Mostaert was known in particular for his winter landscapes and his scenes with fires and nocturnal scenes and his works in this genre were among the most sought-after pieces of his time. The artist operated a large workshop in Antwerp, which supplied works to prominent patrons. He was a regular collaborator with leading Antwerp artists of his time.

Life Gillis Mostaert was born in Hulst. According to the early artist biographer Karel van Mander Gillis Mostaert was the twin brother of the painter Frans Mostaert and the grandson of the painter Jan Mostaert. Modern scholarship casts doubt on the statement that Jan Mostaert was a relative of Gillis.

While his brother Frans became a pupil of the landscape painter Herri met de Bles, according to van Mander, Gillis studied landscape painting with Jan Mandijn although there is no record in the Guild books documenting such apprenticeship. Van Mander recounts that both brothers joined the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1555. It is suspected that Gillis worked along Marten van Cleve and Maerten de Vos in the studio of Frans Floris, the leading Antwerp history painter of his time. Gillis Mostaert the Elder was well-respected by his fellow painters. The painters Peeter Baltens and Crispin van den Broeck were godfathers to his children born respectively in 1571 and 1588.

Mostaert established a thriving workshop in Antwerp and his work commanded high prices in the market. These collectors included François Perrenot de Granvelle (1559–1607) (younger brother of Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle), Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595) and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. Filips van Valckenisse who was the Lord of Hemiksem, head of the Antwerp militia and perhaps Antwerp's greatest art collector owned over 50 paintings by Mostaert.

He died in Antwerp. It is believed that he was heavily indebted at the time of his death and that the contents of his workshop was sold off or distributed to creditors to pay off these debts. Mostaert often used copper as a support for his oil paintings, which gives them a certain luster or glowing appearance.

He was in his time known for the wit displayed in his works. He reportedly painted a Resurrection of Lazarus, which included a self-portrait of himself amongst the crowd holding his nose so as not to smell Lazarus’ smell of decay. He was thus regarded as continuing a Flemish artistic tradition of which Hieronymus Bosch was the earliest representative and of which his contemporary Pieter Bruegel the Elder was another example.

Mostaert's 'fire paintings' were listed in the inventories of important collectors of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Scenes depicting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the burning of villages at night gave the artist the opportunity to show off his skill in rendering the effects of light and fire.

Mostaert is credited with the invention of paintings of biblical scenes, which are framed on all sides by smaller scenes in grisaille painted on wood. An example is The Baptism of Christ (Fondation Custodia). Mostaert started creating these composite paintings from the 1570s onwards. Several of his paintings in this style were formerly incorrectly ascribed to Frans Francken the Younger who painted similar scenes into the 1620s.

He was sought after as a staffage painter and added the figures in landscapes of his Antwerp colleagues such as Cornelis van Dalem (to whom he introduced Bartholomäus Spranger as a pupil), Marten van Cleve, Cornelis Molenaer and Jacob Grimmer and in the architectural paintings and city views of Hendrik van Steenwijck I and Hans Vredeman de Vries.