He won commissions in Amsterdam and, from 1650 onwards, worked for fifteen years on the new city hall together with the lead architect Jacob van Campen.

Now called the Royal Palace on the Dam, this construction project, and in particular the marble decorations he and his workshop produced, became an example for other buildings in Amsterdam.

His many pupils included his cousin Artus Quellinus II, Martin Deurweerders, Grinling Gibbons, Gabriël Grupello, Pieter Verbrugghen I, Lodewijk Willemsens, Jackes Janssen (1641–42); Hendricus Quellinus (1643–44); Hubertus Daep (1651–52); Aurelius Gompaert (1651–52); Gabriël Grupello (1658–69); Jan Bouttil (1660–61); Lodewyk Willemsen (1661–62); Jasper van Steen (1664–65); Lambertus Lowies (1666–67) and Dirick Willekens van Werelt (1667–68).

[8] Stylistically he introduced the classicizing Baroque style of François Duquesnoy (the so-called la gran maniera greca) to his native Antwerp.

It was popularised by his brother Hubertus, who engraved many of his works in the city hall and published a book of these together with 30 architectural drawings by van Campen in 1665.

[10] One particular feature of the city hall, the so-called vierschaar or tribunal, reflected the fashion of the period and, in particular, the ideals of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio and his pupils Vincenzo Scamozzi and Cesare Ripa.

His sculptures were so popular in Amsterdam that the leading Dutch writers Joost van den Vondel and Jan Vos dedicated poems to his work.

The most important piece is undoubtedly the half-length marble portrait bust of Luis de Benavides Carrillo, Marquis of Caracena, the Governor of the Southern Netherlands, with its realistically sculpted facial features and free flowing hair.