Jan Wellens de Cock

1490 – 1529

Flemish painter and draughtsman who probably came originally from Leiden but settled in Antwerp as a painter and probably also as an engraver. He became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke in 1503. In 1507-8 Jan was paid for painting angels and restoring the Holy Ghost in Antwerp Cathedral. He and Joos van Cleve became joint deans of the guild in 1520. His work was influenced by painter Cornelis Engebrechtsz of Leiden and his Antwerp contemporaries. Wellens de Cock was - along with his fellow townsman Joos van Cleve - one of the few painters in the north interested in landscape in the early sixteenth century. Later, this interest was to spread to broader circles. Wellens de Cock was the father of landscape painter Matthijs Cock and Hieronymus Cock, who acquired fame as one of the first professional print publishers in northern Europe. His widow, Clara von Beeringen, was mentioned on 19 January 1527 as the wife of the landscape painter Frans Vermeer.

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