Jacob de Backer

1555 – 1585

Flemish painter. Although Jacob de Backer left us a substantial number of paintings and drawings, very little is known of his brief life and career. De Backer joined the workshop of Antonio van Palermo, who reportedly worked his pupil so hard that the strain eventually lead to his premature demise at the age of thirty. Despite this short lived period of activity, De Backer must have produced many versions and copies of his Last Judgment. In fact, many people know De Backer only from these Last Judgment scenes, but this would be a misunderstanding of the artist's true nature. He painted many allegories that indicated he was a learned man with a humanistic education.

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