Pieter Isaacsz

Pieter Isaacsz (ca 1569, Helsingør – 14 September 1625) was a Danish court and portrait painter from Dutch origin who worked in a mannerist style on historical, biblical and mythological subjects.

[1] Pieter was the son of Helena Backer (also known as Heyltje Roelofs) and Isaac Pietersz, a merchant from Haarlem who first supplied the Danish court and was then appointed commissioner for the States General of the Netherlands at the Sound toll.

According to Flemish art historian Karel van Mander, Pieter Isaacsz spent a year and a half learning to paint under the instruction of Cornelis Ketel.

Isaacsz wrote a total of 58 reports on everything from military building plans to visits by foreign diplomats, the Sont toll and much court gossip.

Pieter owned a copy of a tronie of Titian by Dirck Barendsz, painted several schuttersstukken with many locals from Dutch Golden Age.

[14] Isaacsz made good use of his position as a royal art buyer and furnished the castles with many of his own old works, which were bought at a hefty price.

[16] In 1618 his brother Johan Pontanus, a professor in Harderwijk, was appointed as royal historian, with the task to write a history of Denmark in Latin.

His most popular piece was an oil on copper painting with a procession of angry women in Rome in front of Marcus Aurelius on hearing that the Roman Senate had decided in favor of polygamy for men.