Herman van der Mast
Herman van der Mast | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1550 |
Died | 9 January 1610 |
Nationality | Dutch |
Herman van der Mast (c. 1550 – 1610) was a
What little we know about Mast are the notes related by Karel van Mander in his Schilder-boeck, who mentioned him as part of a long list of pupils of Frans Floris. Mast was born in Brielle and was living in Delft when Van Mander was writing.[1] After Frans Floris died he went to live with Frans Francken the Elder, who he served (along with other ex-Floris pupils) by copying works for production. While copying a painting by Floris there, namely a "cross-carrier" (eenen Cruys-drager van Floris), there was a hand holding a whitish cross, and while Mast was painting, a daddy long legs sat on the original, which Mast painted onto his copy very cleverly, including all the shadows. When his master came into the room, he said he could see he wasn't a very quick painter, because the spiders had time to shit on his work.[1] Making a movement to brush it away with his hat, and seeing it wasn't moving but was painted, he became embarrassed and said that he shouldn't take it off but let it remain.[1] The next day Mast showed it to his colleague Gortzius Geldorp and told him about what his master said, boasting "Zeuxis's birds! I fooled the Master with this creature!". Geldorp wouldn't believe him until he was told later to go look at the painting.[1]
Van der Mast travelled to
In his work on Van Mander,
It is unknown why Mast returned to Delft, where he later died, but probably this was because both his patrons had died.[4]
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Portrait of a man aged 33 in 1589
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Portrait of a woman aged 24 in 1587
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Frans Francken in Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck, 1604 (in Dutch)
- RKD
- ^ a b c Hessel Miedema, Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, Volume IV, p. 47-48
- ^ Herman van der Mast in the RKD