Michael Coxcie
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Michael Coxcie (Mechelen 1499–March 5, 1592) was a Flemish painter who studied under Bernard van Orley, who probably induced him to visit the Italian peninsula.
At Rome in 1532 he painted the chapel of Cardinal Enckenvoort in the church of Santa Maria deli Anima; and Giorgio Vasari, who knew him, says with truth that he fairly acquired the manner of an Italian. But Coxcie's principal occupation was designing for engravers; and the fable of Psyche in thirty-two sheets by Agostino Veneziano and the Master of the Die are favorable specimens of his skill.
Turned back in the Netherlands, Coxcie greatly extended his practice in this branch of art. But his productions were till lately concealed under an interlaced monogram M.C.O.K.X.I.N. Coxcie returned in 1539 to Mechelen, where he matriculated, and painted for the chapel of the gild of St Luke the wings of an altar-piece now in Sanct Veit of Prague. The centre of this altar-piece, by Jan Mabuse, represents Saint Luke the Evangelist portraying the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus; the side pieces contain the Martyrdom of Saint Vitus and the Vision of St John the Evangelist in Patmos.
At van Orley's death in 1541 Coxcie succeeded to the office of court painter to the Regent Maria of Austria, for whom he decorated the castle of Binchc. He was subsequently patronized by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who often coupled his works with those of Titian; by Philip II of Spain, who paid him royally for a copy of Jan van Eyck's Agnus Dei; and by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, who once protected him from the insults of Spanish soldiery at Mechelen.
There are large and capital works of his (1587-1588) in the St. Rumbolds Cathedral of Mechelen, in the St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral of Brussels, and in the museums of Brussels and Antwerp. His style is Raphaelesque grafted on the Flemish, but his imitation of Raphael, whilst it distantly recalls Giulio Romano, is never free from affectation and stiffness. He died at Mechelen on the 5 March, 1592.
Coxcie is sometimes spelled Coxie, such as in the Mechelen street devoted to the painter.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
