Karel van Mander the Elder worked at a period when the terms of art itself were being renegotiated.
The record lists Karel van Mander the Elder as Flemish painter, poet and art historian (1548–1606).
Karel van Mander the Elder was born at Meulebeke in 1548. His recorded nationality is Habsburg Netherlands.
This was the period in which the artist became an individual with a signature, a reputation and a price.
He worked as art historian, painter and writer.
His recorded movement is mannerism.
Among his best-known works are The Flood, The annunciation and The Adoration of the Shepherds. An artist's reputation moves with taste, but the work stays exactly where it was left.
That the work was made in Habsburg Netherlands shaped it: artistic traditions, academies and the galleries that decide what is seen have never been evenly distributed.
Karel van Mander the Elder died in 1606, aged 58. The work remains, hanging in collections that outlived both the artist and the market that first priced it.
Achievements
- Notable work: The Flood
- Notable work: The annunciation
- Notable work: The Adoration of the Shepherds
- Notable work: The Continence of Scipio
- Movement: Mannerism
