Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen

He was one of the first important artists working in Amsterdam, at a time when it was a flourishing and beautiful provincial town.

Similar to the archival evidence surrounding Frans Hals, the first known commissions for Jacob Cornelisz were from when he was at least 35 years of age.

The last payments made to him according to the Egmond Abbey archives were in 1526–1528 for a retable (lost during the troubles of the Protestant Reformation).

In his earlier years, Jacob Cornelisz was under the influence of Haarlem painter Geertgen tot Sint Jans.

At first, he started as a late Gothic craftsman under the influence of the Haarlem school and then ended with a style presented by the painting Saul and the Witch of Endor.

Some of his works such as Christ as the Man of Sorrows (1510) were used by biblical humanists and the Amsterdam oligarchy, who wanted to defend Catholic orthodoxy against the claims of early Reformers.

Other paintings such as The Nativity (1512) and Saul and the Witch of Endor were visually similar to what the Catholic essays patrons were writing.

Scholars were led to believe this was the year of his death, but according to Dutch historian I. H van Eeghen there was a seven-year gap between paintings, which was unusual.