Cornelis Massys

1510 – 1556

Painter, draughtsman and engraver, son of Quentin Massys. Like his elder brother Jan Massys , Cornelis was admitted to the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp in 1532, before reaching the age of majority. It is unlikely that he ever worked with his father or brother. Cornelis signed his works with three different monograms. Only one panel has survived bearing his first monogram COR. MET, used from 1537 to 1539: the Return of the Prodigal Son (1538; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). In it Cornelis emerges as a fine painter of imaginary landscapes in the manner of Joachim Patenier, but the figures are less successful and the composition somewhat stiff.

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