Gillis Mostaert

Gillis Mostaert the Elder (27 or 28 November 1528 – 28 December 1598) was a Flemish Renaissance painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp in the second half of the 16th century.

[9] It is suspected that Gillis worked along Marten van Cleve and Maerten de Vos in the studio of Frans Floris, the leading Antwerp history painter of his time.

[4] Inventories of art collections from most important collectors of the late 16th and early 17th centuries list many expensive cabinet paintings of Mostaert, which shows that his work received patronage of prominent and well-off private clients.

It is believed that he was heavily indebted at the time of his death and that the contents of his workshop was sold off or distributed to creditors to pay off these debts.

[3] Mostaert is believed to have played an important role in the development in Antwerp of genre and landscape art, through his scenes depicting the activities of contemporary people by means of the many small figures in his compositions.

He was thus regarded as continuing a Flemish artistic tradition of which Hieronymus Bosch was the earliest representative and of which his contemporary Pieter Bruegel the Elder was another example.

For his Bosch-inspired compositions he drew his main inspiration from one of the five tapestries after Bosch that were woven for Cardinal Granvelle in Brussels in 1566.

A composition inspired by Bosch is the Haywain (also known as the Allegory on worldly and clerical abuses) of which he produced various versions (e.g. Rijksmuseum on loan to the Museum Catharijneconvent).

Throughout the composition the seven deadly sins are represented: gluttony, sloth, envy, avarice, pride, wrath and lust.

Scenes depicting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the burning of villages at night gave the artist the opportunity to show off his skill in rendering the effects of light and fire.

The villagers appear to have gained the upper hand on the soldiers some of whom together with their female companions are shown on the foreground lying on the ground under threat of being killed.