Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651) was born into a Catholic family in Hulst, near the border between Holland and Flanders. This area was hotly disputed during the Eighty Years War (1568–1648) and in 1596 the De Vos family moved to Antwerp, confirming their Flemish rather than Dutch heritage. Soon after, Cornelis became an assistant in the workshop of the Antwerp artist David Remeeus, securing the young man’s place in the Flemish artistic tradition.
Probably painted around 1535 in the Northern Netherlands. The pansy symbolises thought (from the French 'pensée') and the skull is probably intended as a memento mori (a symbol of human frailty and reminder of death).
Maarten van Heemskerck (born 1498, Heemskerck, Holland-died 1574, Haarlem), one of the leading Mannerist painters in 16th-century Holland working in the Italianate manner.
He spent a period (c. 1528) in the Haarlem studio of Jan van Scorel, then lately returned from Italy. Van Heemskerck’s earliest works—“Ecce Homo” (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Ghent) and “St. Luke Painting the Portrait of the Virgin” (Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem), both dated 1532—while adhering closely to the Romanist style of Scorel, seek to outdo it by dramatic lighting and illusionistic effects of plasticity.
Dutch Mannerist painter Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574) lived in Rome for four years (1532-36) and was deeply affected by the city's art and antiquities.
Here, the half-length, seated figure, the tense yet elegant hands, and even the grotesque classical mask reflect the impact of that experience, while the love of meticulously represented textures is traditionally associated with northern European art.