The Story
Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c. 1500 – c. 1566) was a leading Flemish Renaissance painter, belonging to the group of Italianizing Flemish painters called the Romanists, who were influenced by Italian Renaissance painting. Van Hemessen had visited Italy during the 1520s, and also Fontainebleau near Paris in the mid 1530s, where he was able to view the work of the colony of Italian artists known as the First School of Fontainebleau, who were working on the decorations for the Palace of Fontainebleau.
Van Hemessen's works show his ability to interpret the Italian models into a new Flemish visual vocabulary. Hemessen played an important role in the development of genre painting, through his large scenes with religious or worldly subjects, set in towns with contemporary dress and architecture. These works depict human failings such as greed and vanity, and some show an interest in subjects with a financial angle.
Executed in Oil on panel, measuring 99.1 × 77.2 cm (39 × 30 3/8 in.); Framed: 119.7 × 97.8 × 6.4 cm (47 1/8 × 38 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Jan Sanders van Hemessen builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Renaissance practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
