ABOUT
Not many know that the renowned Early Netherlandish painter Quinten Massijs was actually born in Leuven, as he made his career in Antwerp after moving there at the age of 25. According to 19th century historian Edward van Even, Massijs’ home called “De Causse” (The Sock) was located on today’s Mechelsestraat close to the Vismarkt (Fish Market). I assume this is Number 59 which has a direct access to the Craenendonck at the back.
Origin
Who was Quinten Massijs (circa 1466 – 1530)?
After Dieric Bouts, Quinten Massijs was Leuven’s most famous Early Netherlandish painter. Both his first and family names are spelled differently now and across the ages, leading to confusion even today: Quinten/Kwinten/Quentin, Massijs/Quinten Metsys/Massijs/Matsijs/Matsys/Massys/Metsijs/Metsys/Messijs/Messys
“Metsys” seems to have been the original spelling although nowadays it is “Massijs“.
To unfold the story of Quinten Massijs, we have to go back to his grandfather as the family history stretches a few generations between Leuven and Antwerp.
Sometime before 1459, Joost (the elder) Massijs arrived in Leuven from Ouwen (today’s Grobbendonk), after his father Hendrik Massijs – a locksmith and watchmaker – sold their farm ‘Ter Ykele’. Hendrik and his younger son Jan moved to Antwerp where Jan established himself as a blacksmith.
After his arrival in Leuven, Joost Massijs married Catharina van Kinckem from Tienen, and moved into her parents’ house called “De Causse” (The Sock) on the “Borghstrate“, the road that led from the harbour to the castle. The couple had four children: eldest son Joost (the younger), second son Quinten, third son Jan and the youngest was a daughter Catharina. While not of a wealthy family, Catharina van Kinckem was not poor either. Her father Jan van Kinckem was a textile merchant and was owner of the house. After settling down in Leuven, Joost Massijs exercised his trade as a locksmith and watchmaker, just like his father Hendrik Massijs. Joost was so good at his work that Mathijs de Layens, architect of the new city hall, assigned him the most beautiful and intricate metal works for the project.
However, Joost (the elder) Massijs died in 1483, probably in his early forties, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Joost (the younger) Massijs (1463-1530). Incidentally, the architect of the new Stadhuis (city hall) and the Sint-Pieterskerk, Matthijs de Layens died that same year. Joost (the younger) Massijs was asked to take over the task of designing the church’s impressive towers. Joost the Younger later made such a name for himself, that he was named clockmaker of the city.
It is not known what happened to Quinten Massijs during this time. But in 1491, he left home for Antwerp and moved in with his cousin, Jan (the younger) Massijs who was a furrier there. Jan (the younger) Massijs is the son of Jan (the elder) Massijs, uncle of Quinten.
Once arrived in Antwerp, Quinten Massijs registered himself as a painter at the city’s Saint Lucas’ Guild. Art historians cannot agree on where he received his training. Is it possible that he received training from Dieric Bouts, although when Bouts died in 1475 Quentin was only nine! Bouts was definitely an inspiration as Quentin Massys’ works showed much influence from Dieric Bouts and Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400 – 1464). Just because no guild records were kept prior to 1494 in Leuven there is no concrete proof that Massijs had his training here; however, historians generally accept this to be the location of his early training because he had not been previously registered in Antwerp as an apprentice. Others thought he learnt his art under Hans Memling (circa 1430 – 1494) in Bruges. We have to remember that the County of Flanders was another country from the Duchy of Brabant, it was unlikely Quinten Massijs would have done that. Others think that he learnt painting on his own. The last idea became the stuff of legend.
From Blacksmith to Painter
In the centre of Antwerp, there is a round stone well topped with an ornate ironwork in front of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of Our Beloved Lady). Around the well is an inscription:
“Dese putkevie werd gesmeed door Quinten Matsijs. De liefde maeckte van den smidt enen schilder.”
“This ironwork was wrought by Quinten Massijs. Love made a painter out of a blacksmith.”
The ironwork is attributed to Quinten Massijs and dates from around 1490, although there is no actual evidence he made it. The stone well itself with the neo-Gothic inscription dates from 1900-1901 by Gustave Royers. The iron work originally crowned the well in front of the old city hall, and was transferred here around 1550.
Legend goes that soon after his arrival in Antwerp, Quinten Massijs fell in love with Catharina Heyns, the daughter of a painter. But her father thought that a blacksmith was far too low to win his daughter’s hand. Quinten could not accept this, and secretly practiced his painting skills. When the girl’s father was away from home, Quinten sneaked into his house and painted a lifelike fly on the bare bottom of a devil in a painting on a wall. When he returned home, Heyns saw the fly and tried to shoo it away, only to find that it had been painted. He promptly declared whoever that painted the fly could marry his daughter. That was when Quinten Massijs came out of his painter closet and married Catharina.
This legend was of course untrue, yet it persisted throughout the centuries in Antwerp. There are two clear mistakes: first, Quinten Massijs was not a blacksmith; second, Quinten Massijs’s first wife was not Catharina Heyns.
The first mistake can easily be explained. Despite his family being known in Leuven, Quinten Massijs arrived in Antwerp as a stranger. He most likely stayed with his uncle’s family, and his uncle was a known blacksmith. On top of that, Quinten arrived and registered immediately in the guild as an independent painter.
The second mistake is simply not factual. In 1492, Quinten Massijs married Aleyt van Tuyl. Together, they had three children. After the death of his first wife, in 1508 he married Catharina Heyns. With her, he had another ten (!) children. Two of these ten children, Jan Massijs and Cornelis Massijs, later also became painters.
Leuven puts her son to work
In 1507, the “Broederschap van de Heilige Anna” (Brotherhood of Saint Anne) in Leuven ordered an altarpiece, the St Anne Triptych, for the Sint-Pieterskerk. This was the first major commission for Quinten Massijs and one of the first fully painted altarpieces made in Antwerp. This goes to show that Massijs’ reputation as a painter was probably known before he left Leuven and his establishment in the port city of Antwerp further raised his profile.
In the centrepiece, Saint Anne and her extended family from all her three marriages are depicted. Scenes from her life are depicted in the side panels: on the left panel, the angel Gabriel informed her husband Joachim of the coming birth of the Holy Virgin. On the right panel, is St Anne on her deathbed. On the back of the left panel, at the top right corner, was Quinten’s signature: “QVINTE METSYS/ SCREEF DIT 1509“.
The St Anne Altarpiece is currently housed in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels. Art historians consider the work to be the decisive bridge between Gothic and Renaissance in Netherlandish painting.
The Legacy of Quinten Massijs
Quinten Massijs died in 1530 from the so-called English sweating sickness. He was buried in the Carthusian monastery in the Sint-Rochusstraat in Antwerp, where he had also lived the last years of his life. Later, the remains of the master were transferred to the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal in Antwerp. A statue of him can now be found on the Amerikalei.
Quinten’s sons, Jan and Cornelis, also became painters in their own rights. Jan’s son, Quinten’s grandson, Quinten Massijs (Quentin Metsys in English) the Younger became a court painter for Elizabeth I of England.
What's so special about this place?
The Calendar Clock Face
The Calendar Clock Face is an unusual painting from around 1500 by an unknown painter in the collection of the M Museum Leuven. All moveable parts have been removed in the course of centuries leaving only the circular clock face behind.
Nothing was known of the Calendar Clock Face before its discovery by Leuven’s 19th century historian Edward Van Even. Van Even was a friend of William Henry James Weale, who included it in his 1902 Bruges exhibition of Flemish primitives with the following entry:
“284. A Clock Face. This dial was executed around 1510 to be placed on a clock wrought by Josse Metsys. The decoration is divided into six concentric circles. The first circle shows the twelve zodiac signs in gold. The second circle shows twelve scenes of various occupations of each of the twelve months; the third circle, hours; and the fourth circle portrays in 24 compartments, the joys and miseries of human life. The fifth circle gives the division of the year in 365 calendar days; and the sixth circle shows the names of months. At the four corners, the four planets are represented by symbolic characters.”
The painting only arrived in Leuven’s collection via the Demunter bequest in 1938 and has been in the museum since 1976. It is similar in in size to “The Seven Deadly Sins” and the “Four Last Things” by Hieronymus Bosch. There are many different theories about the painting have been made, but none has been conclusive.
What is curious about the Calendar Clock Face is that the Massijs brothers are clearly featured in it.
As quoted by Edward Van Even:
“In the topmost compartment of the fourth circle, the three brothers Massijs are seen: Josse, the eldest, busy mounting a church clock; Quentin, painting a portrait; and Jan, grinding colors.”
Could it be that Quentin or was it actually Joost Massijs who was the painter behind the enigmatic Calendar Clock Face?
The Death of Catharina Massijs the Heretic
After Quentin left for Antwerp and Joost Massijs [the Younger] (1463-1529) inherited the house “De Causse” and the workshop. As mentioned in my article about the Sint-Pieterskerk, Joost Massijs was the one who designed the immense towers of the church. To make the design more visual for the city council, Joost Massijs had a miniature made of his design by a talented sculptor in his workshop, known as Jan Beyaert (circa 1498 – 1543).
Jan (Joannes) “Beyaert” Vandenborne [the Younger] was not a nobody. His maternal grandfather, Jan Beyaert [the Elder], was a famous sculptor in the times of Philip the Good, so much that he took on the name “Beyaert” to practice his trade.
In the workshop of Joost Massijs, Jan Beyaert got to know the youngest sister of the Massijs, Catharina Massijs (circa 1488 – 1543). They got married in 1520, and together they had seven children. After Joost died in 1529, the couple inherited the property.
The sixteenth century was a time of seismic religious upheavals in Europe: On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the church door in Wittenberg. As a bastion of Catholicism, the Leuven University banned all teachings of Luther on 7 November 1519. Right after the marriage of Catharina and Jan, the Edict of Worms published on 26 May 1521 banished Luther and his followers and declared them heretics.
Leuven, being a European centre of learnings, naturally attracted thinkers of all persuasions. This diversity of opinions included reformist positions like those of Luther, and these attracted Catharina and Jan.
Being ten years older than her husband, Catharina Massijs was said to have had a great influence over her husband. She supposedly neglected her household, preferring to spend time with her friends and fellow protestants to discuss Luther’s doctrine. She was also known to have bought forbidden reformist prints in Leuven’s markets, and Jan even used these prints as models when he made his sculptures. In 1537, the couple went further openly profess their ‘conversion’ to Protestantism and taught their children to read Luther’s Seven Psalms. With the support of the Protestants in Leuven, Jan did the unimaginable provocation in 1541: He stole paintings from both Sint-Pieterskerk and Sint-Jacobskerk that depicted souls in purgatory begging for a rosary prayer for their salvation.
This proved too much for the Church. In March 1542, after the shutting of the city gates, forty-three suspected Protestants were arrested from their homes. Among them, Catharina and Jan. Both of them underwent three interrogations which lasted until the following year. When Jan did not make the desired confession, he was tortured by being force-fed water continuously on 28 May 1543. Catharina on the other hand, did not want to be tortured and she confessed immediately. What was remarkable was her brutal honesty: she said she burnt the paintings as firewood because she did not have wood at home, and that she thinks the purgatory was a lie invented to fill the priests’ pockets.
All suspected heretics were found guilty of their crime on 9 June 1543, and that they would receive the capital punishment. All their properties, which meant the Massijs house “De Causse“, would now be transferred to the state.
On 15 June 1543, Jan (Joannes) “Beyaert” Vandenborne [the Younger] was beheaded on the Grote Markt in Leuven. On the same day, Catharina was buried alive there. Several of the others were burnt on stakes. The very same day, the seven children of Jan and Catharina were orphaned and homeless. Nothing is known about them thereafter.
Current situation
There is no trace of the original house of the talented Massijs family. Whether it was Joost Massijs who designed Leuven’s enigmatic church towers, the world-famous painter Quinten Massijs, or the self-thinking Catharina Massijs, we cannot deny their important contributions to the history of Leuven.
With the description provided by Edward Van Even that the house had a direct access via a small courtyard to the harbour water – dammed up and is nowadays the street called Craenendonck – and the name of the house which means the Sock, I can only assume the house to be Number 59 on the Mechelsestraat.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Matsys
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinten_Massijs_(I)
https://historiek.net/quinten-massijs-matsijs-kunstschilder/92350/
https://hetstillepand.art/matsijs_quinten.htm
https://www.volksverhalen.be/Put-van-Quinten-Matsijs
https://allesoverantwerpen.nl/zien-en-doen/bezienswaardigheden/waterput-van-quinten-metsijs/
https://www.okv.be/artikel/quinten-metsys-de-triptiek-van-de-broederschap-der-heilige-anna-te-leuven
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_Clock_Face
St Anne Altarpiece, Quinten Metsys, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (image)
