Mor, Anthonis (c. 1517–1577)

Dutch portraitist. He became court painter to the Spanish rulers in the Netherlands in 1549 and was widely patronized at the courts of Europe. Suitably formal and austere, his portraits of contemporary European royalty greatly influenced development of the genre.

Born in Utrecht, he trained under Scorel. Subsequently he travelled extensively and rarely settled for long in one place. He developed a type of formal portrait derived in pose from Titian and Moroni (whom he studied in Italy), but with Flemish precision of detail in delineating features and costume which made him very popular.

He visited Italy, Spain, Portugal, and England, where he painted a portrait of Mary I in 1554 (Prado, Madrid) at the time of her marriage to Philip II of Spain. He was an important influence on portrait painting in the Netherlands and Spain, but less so in England, where he made a brief visit, because of the strong Holbein tradition. Knighted c. 1553.