Michiel Coxie (1497/1501- 1585) Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, 1580s, Oil on oak, St. Rumbold’s cathedral, Mechelen
Michiel Coxcie (1497/1501–1585), The Martyrdom of Saint George, 1580s, oil on oak, St Rumbold’s Cathedral, Mechelen
Michiel Coxcie (1499–1585), one of the most influential artists of the sixteenth century in the Habsburg Netherlands, was born in Mechelen and received formative training in Italy. His extended stay there brought him into direct contact with the High Renaissance, particularly the art of Raphael, whose harmonious compositions, balanced colour schemes, and idealised figure types left a lasting mark on his style. This assimilation of Italian models earned him the sobriquet ‘the Flemish Raphael’. Yet, for all his technical mastery and clarity of design, Coxcie’s figures can sometimes appear detached from one another, their expressions fixed in a manner that reduces the sense of natural interaction.
The monumental altarpieces of 1587–1588 in St Rumbold’s Cathedral, Mechelen, present a particularly intriguing case in his late career. These large compositions repeat and adapt designs from works he had produced in the 1570s, suggesting both a conscious return to established formulas and the practical need to meet urgent post-iconoclasm commissions. During the brief Protestant rule of 1580–1585, thousands of artworks in Mechelen’s churches were destroyed; following the Catholic restoration, civic and ecclesiastical patrons sought to replace them swiftly. Many of Coxcie’s earlier works had been lost, prompting him to draw upon his own repertoire of proven compositions. For decades, it was assumed that the artist, then in his eighties, executed these works shortly before his death in 1592, allegedly after a fall down a flight of stairs. Recent archival research, however, has corrected this date to 1585, making these altarpieces not just late works, but almost certainly his final creations.
Michiel Coxcie (1497/1501–1585), The Martyrdom of Saint George, 1580s, oil on oak, St Rumbold’s Cathedral, Mechelen
