Balthasar van Meurs

Through these collaborations and family connections Jan van Meurs was part of the circle of humanists in Antwerp of which Rubens was also a member.

[4][5] Balthasar became in April 1637 a member of the 'Sodaliteit van de Bejaerde Jongmans', a fraternity for bachelors established by the Jesuit order.

These painters included Rubens, Jacob van Reesbroeck, Pieter Thijs, Erasmus Quellinus the Younger, Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert and possibly Gonzales Coques.

The persons to be portrayed were Jan van den Wouwer, a humanist who was a pupil of Justus Lipsius and a good friend of Balthasar I and II Moretus, the Antwerp bishop Johannes Malderus and the scientist Jean-Jacques Chifflet and his son Jules Chifflet, both acquaintances of the Moretus family and authors of the Plantin Press.

The portraits of the Chifflets may have been made from life as both were alive and often in Antwerp where van Meurs could portray them.