Pieter Coecke van Aelst

Karel van Mander recorded that Coecke was a pupil of Bernard van Orley, the court painter in Brussels, then studied with Jan van Dornicke (formerly known as the Master of 1518) in Antwerp where he became an independent master by 1527. Trained as a painter of panels as well as paper cartoons, or models, to be woven into tapestry, Coecke established in Antwerp a large workshop that took on a variety of projects. They designed tapestries for the most powerful patrons of his day, from Henry VIII and Francis I to the Habsburgs and the Medici. The enterprising Coecke went, in 1533-34, as far as Constantinople, in the heart of the enemy’s land, to negotiate sales for his tapestry to Süleyman the Magnificent. Yet these monumental textiles were executed, in brilliant strands of silks, wool, and precious-metal-wrapped threads, without the touch of the artist’s hand.

As the leading painter of panels and triptychs of his generation, Coecke and his studio popularized subjects, such as the Last Supper, the Holy Family, and the Adoration of the Magi. The latter in particular, depicting Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar bringing exotic treasures to the Son of God, resonated with the port city’s mercantile aspirations and its growing international trade. The painting commissions came from home and abroad: the Abbazia della Cervara in Liguria, the Nava and Grimón family on the Canary Island of Tenerife, Philip II at El Escorial, to name but a few. Coecke and his studio also painted on spec to meet the demand by collectors as far as modern-day Spain and Portugal, where a significant number of paintings by Coecke remain in public view.

The paintings ascribed to Coecke vary vastly in style and quality. As there are no signed works or paintings with reliable documentation, Coecke’s painted oeuvre hinges upon the understanding of his workshop practice–a century-long debate that continues to this day, although the study of underdrawings, gleaned from infrared reflectography, prove increasingly helpful in the understanding of Coecke’s painted practice. Historically prized by artist connoisseurs, from Rubens to Reynolds, an impressive body of drawings have survived and constitute the most important autograph works by Coecke.

Coecke’s achievements were recognized for at least two centuries after his death. However, his multi-faceted abilities in design may have worked to the detriment of his fame in modern times; not to mention that tapestry, the most expensive and elite medium in his lifetime and for which he received most praise, was one that separated his personal authorship from the woven final product. Coecke’s reputation was revived by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2014 exhibition, Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry. That catalogue remains the first and only monograph on the artist in English.❖