Jan Matsys

He also gained a reputation as a painter of the female nude, which he painted with a sensuality reminiscent of the school of Fontainebleau.

He was admitted, together with his brother Cornelis, as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1531, a year after their father's death.

Jan Massijs had died the year before, in Antwerp, having been reduced to a state bordering on poverty.

It remains unclear whether Jan Massijs actually went to Fontainebleau or underwent this influence in an indirect manner.

He frequently used Old Testament figures such as Judith, Susanna, Bathsheba and the daughters of Lot as an excuse to depict the female nude.

[4] Jan Massijs is sometimes regarded as one of the pioneers in Netherlandish art of certain secular subjects such as 'unequal love' (depicting a couple of widely different ages) and 'merry companies'.

Other subjects he pioneered were the money changer, tax collector and the miser, although others see his father as the creator of this genre.

[4][5] Jan Massijs also painted a number of landscapes but his work in this genre is not as significant as that of his brother Cornelis.