Pieter Coecke van Aelst belongs to the record of art as a figure whose work outlasted the taste that first received it.
The record lists Pieter Coecke van Aelst as Flemish painter painter, sculptor, architect, author and designer of woodcuts, goldsmith's work, stained glass and tapestries (1502–1550).
Pieter Coecke van Aelst was born at Aalst in 1502. His recorded nationality is Belgium.
This was the period in which the artist became an individual with a signature, a reputation and a price.
He worked as painter, architect and translator.
Among his best-known works are Triptych with Adoration of the Magi, The Holy Family and Triptych of Nava and Grimon. Art history is a record of what got kept, which is not the same as what was best.
That the work was made in Belgium shaped it: artistic traditions, academies and the galleries that decide what is seen have never been evenly distributed.
Pieter Coecke van Aelst died in 1550, aged 48. The work remains, hanging in collections that outlived both the artist and the market that first priced it.
Achievements
- Notable work: Triptych with Adoration of the Magi
- Notable work: The Holy Family
- Notable work: Triptych of Nava and Grimon
- Notable work: Triptych: Adoration of the Magi; Annunciation; Rest on the flight into Egypt
