Anthonis Mor

In 1549, Mor painted the portrait of Prince Philip of Spain in Brussels (Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao), who toured the Netherlands to present himself as the land’s future ruler. In 1550 and 1551 respectively, he painted the future Emperor Maximilian II and his wife, María of Austria (Museo del Prado, Madrid). Mor was appointed the official court painter to King Philip II in 1554. As court portraitist to the Spanish Habsburgs his fame invited sojourns to Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal (1550–1553), and England (1554–1555), where he famously painted a portrait of Mary Tudor (1554, Museo del Prado, Madrid, which also exists in other versions), for which he is said to have been knighted by the bloody Tudor queen. Mor settled permanently in his home country around 1561, prompted by Philip II’s support of the Inquisition, but continued to work for the monarch from Utrecht, Brussels and Antwerp where he died before turning 60. During this late period, in addition to religious and classical subjects, he painted portraits of humanists and merchants, such as the founder of the British stock market, Sir Thomas Gresham and Anne Fernely (ca. 1560-65, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), considered among his greatest masterpieces.

Beyond artistic influences, the rise of physiognomic and medical studies in the second quarter of the 16th century played a crucial role in shaping Mor’s approach to portraiture, and the artist’s painterly rendering of flesh was not just an aesthetic choice but a response to contemporary scientific discourse. Mor’s pioneering synthesis of Venetian colorito and Northern naturalism, in other words, laid the groundwork for a new era of portraiture in the Low Countries. Mor’s years in Spain left a particularly strong imprint on court portraiture, which moved away from symbolism to focus entirely on physical impression to convey status, evident in the work of his pupil Alonso Sánchez Coello. His influence extended well into the 17th century, still shaping artists such as Cornelis van der Voort and others. His innovations in texture, color, and psychological depth would later be refined by Peter Paul Rubens and, ultimately, by Rembrandt, whose own painterly explorations of light and flesh echo Mor’s breakthroughs.