Matsys (or Massys or Metsys), Quentin (c. 1465-1530)

Flemish painter. Active in Antwerp, he marked the transition from early Flemish art to that influenced by Italian styles. He painted religious subjects, and portraits set against landscapes or realistic interiors. One of his best-known works is The Money Changer and his Wife (1514) (Louvre, Paris).

He is noted in particular for the refinement and delicacy of his female figures, in which he seems to show acquaintance with the work of Leonardo, and for landscape backgrounds related in character to those of his contemporary at Antwerp, Joachim Patinir.

His sons Cornelis (c. 1508-1580) and Jan (c. 1509-1575) were also painters.

He was the son of a metalworker and clockmaker at Louvain and trained there and perhaps in the studio of Dirck Bouts. His art represents two phases of transition: not only from early Netherlandish art, represented by Memling and Gerard David, to that of Italian influence, but also from the declining city of Bruges to the newly flourishing city of Antwerp, where he became a member of the Painters' Guild in 1491.

Other works include the St Anne Altarpiece, (1509, Musées Royaux, Brussels), the Lamentation over Christ, (1511, Musées Royaux, Antwerp), and a portrait of Erasmus, (1517, Museo Nazionale, Rome).