- Christine Armstrong
Extract
(b Amsterdam, c. 1505; d Amsterdam, 1553).
Dutch printmaker, painter and cartographer, maternal grandson of Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen. He was the dominant figure in the creation of north Netherlandish woodcuts from the mid-1530s until his death. His monogram, which combines the initials ‘C’ and ‘T’ with the staff and bell of St Anthony, was probably inspired by his father’s first name. The greater part of his career was apparently spent in his native Amsterdam, where he probably trained with his grandfather.
Cornelis Anthonisz.’s earliest extant work is a signed and dated panel painting known as the Braspenningsmaaltijd (‘Banquet of the copper coin’, 1533; Amsterdam, Hist. Mus.), which depicts 17 members of the Crossbowmen’s Guild, one of Amsterdam’s civic militia companies. Departing from the traditional isocephalic format for such paintings, Cornelis introduced a narrative element by arranging his subjects around a banquet table. The young man standing directly below the monogram and date at the upper left is probably a self-portrait. His next extant, autograph painting is a ...
