Hendrick de Clerck

Hendrick De Clerck, The Judgement of Midas, c. 1600. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. Hendrick De Clerck, The Adoration of the Magi, 1629. Anderlecht, Church of Saint Guido and Saint Peter. Hendrick De Clerck and Jan Brueghel the Elder, Abundance and the Four Elements, 1606. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado.

Hendrick de Clerck (c. 1560 – 27 August 1630) was a Flemish painter active in Brussels during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Stylistically he belongs to the late Mannerist generation of artists preceding Peter Paul Rubens and the Flemish Baroque, and his paintings are very similar to his contemporary Marten de Vos. His exact date of birth is unknown, but in 1594 he is employed as court painter to Archduke Ernest, a position he continued to hold in the service of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella following Ernest's death in 1596.

Altarpieces Like Marten de Vos in Antwerp De Clerck was responsible for painting new altarpieces for churches in Brussels following the iconoclastic outbreaks of 1566, for which he used the clear visual language common in post-Tridentine Counter-Reformation art. Frequently he painted the figures, while collaborating with other artists, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder and Denijs van Alsloot, for the landscapes and other features.