Jacob Isaacsz. van Swanenburg

His father was a painter and designer of prints, stained glass windows and other objects and also served multiple times as Leiden's mayor.

[1] The accusation related to a large canvas depicting a number of witches and devils engaging in perverse acts, which he had displayed outside his shop.

Here van Swanenburg achieved success as a painter and received commissions from local and non-local patrons.

Rembrandt may also have continued in his work a technique of producing paintings which starts with laying out the composition upon the support in stages, building up the picture from the background to the foreground and applying glazing or finishing layers.

Four pictures show the entrance to hell and two of these include the story of Aeneas with the Cumaean Sibyl from Virgil's Aeneid.

These references to Ovid and Virgil were not original and were clearly derived from the work of the Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Elder who had been a pioneer of the hell scene.

[5] An example of a hell scene is The Sibyl showing Aeneas the Underworld, Charon's boat (circa 1620, Museum De Lakenhal).

[7] The scene is further completed with crowds of naked people and monsters engaged in perverse acts, fantastic ships and an eerie background with ancient ruins, flames and clouds of smoke.

[5] Van Swanenburg's city views include a biblical scene of The siege of Bethulia (Museum De Lakenhal), which the artist completed in Naples in 1615.

[8] Van Swanenburg also painted a topographical scene of St. Peter's Square in Rome with a papal procession (1628, National Gallery of Denmark).