Maerten de Vos

Born in Antwerp, Maerten de Vos received his training from his father Pieter de Vos, then from Frans Floris. According to Van Mander, "he visited Italy, Rome, Venice, and other places", undoubtedly in the company of Pieter Brueghel; he even frequented Tintoretto’s workshop for a while. Returning to Antwerp in 1558, he was made a master in the guild of Saint-Luc, of which he became dean in 1572. Installed in his hometown, Maerten de Vos decorated the dining room of the Antwerp patrician Gilles Hooftman in 1568, with the help of of Abraham Ortelius, whose humanist culture and ideas favorable to the Reformation he shared. Despite his religious convictions, he is one of the most sought-after painters for the execution of altar paintings, notably replacing those destroyed by iconoclasm. At the same time, he provides illustrations for works published by Christoph Plantin.