Maarten Pepyn

Marten Pepijn (21 February 1575 – 1643) was a Flemish painter who was mainly known for his large-scale history paintings and to a lesser extent for his smaller genre scenes.

Life Marten Pepijn was born in Antwerp as the son of WIllem Pepijn and Catharina van den Berg. His father was a buyer of used clothes and art dealer in Antwerp. His daughter Katharina (1619–1668) became a notable portrait painter in the style of Rubens and van Dyck. The artist also had a close relationship with Anthony van Dyck who painted his portrait. This painting ended up in the 19th century in the collection of the Dutch king William II. for the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp (Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp). This wing is now attributed to Ambrosius Francken the Elder by the Netherlands Institute for Art History.

Pepijn's work is further characterized by its excellent portraiture. This is demonstrated in the composition Saint Bernard and the Duke of Aquitaine (Musée des beaux-arts de Valenciennes).

Genre paintings

There is still uncertainty as to whether a number of cabinet pictures that depict genre scenes, in particular of ball scenes at court, that are now attributed to Marten Pepijn are in fact by his hand. Some of these pictures bearing a monogram show a style, which is completely different from the large-scale, muscular religious works of Pepijn. These works are believed to have been produced in a period when Pepijn had close contact with the leading Antwerp painter Frans Francken the Younger.

These small-scale compositions contain little figures with stereotyped faces and soft contours. This style is found in his allegories of the Five Senses (private collection), The ball and the Ball at the court (both in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow). This last composition is signed and dated 1604 and depicts an elegant dance party. The influence of early works by Hieronymus Francken the Elder and Frans Francken the Younger, who were both known for their depictions of similar scenes, is apparent.

The difference between the styles of these smaller compositions and his larger, religious works has yet to be satisfactorily explained. Some historians have suggested that possibly the smaller works are the work of a family member such as a son or brother of Pepijn.