(active in the Netherlands between 1530 and 1560)?
Portrait of a scholar,
oil on panel, 43.2 x 30.5 cm, framed

The name ‘Master of the 1540s’ refers to a Netherlandish portraitist who worked in the 16th century. He was a contemporary of Anthonis Mor and Ambrosius Benson and, like them was active in Antwerp. He painted portraits of patricians, reflecting the growing self-confidence and increasing wealth of secular citizens living in towns between the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern era. Some thirty portraits that were previously erroneously given to Pieter Pourbus are now attributed to the Master of the 1540s. Friedländer, who was the first to have recognised this master’s stylistic originality, derived the unidentified artist’s name from the period during which his works were executed (see M. Friedländer, Die Sammlung Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin, 1917, vol. II, no. 100). Scholars have not yet succeeded in identifying this master. A proposal that it might be Nicholas Neufchatel was rejected by Friedländer.

The artist’s autonomous approach becomes evident in his meticulous manner of painting, his narrowly cropped portraits, and such recurring anatomic features as long fingers and oval fingernails. Underdrawing detected with the aid of infrared photography attests to the artist’s technical skills (see fig. 1). His portraits mostly depict half-length figures against monochrome backdrops emphasising the sitters’ light-coloured complexions and dark garments. An illusion of three-dimensionality in the costumes is limited to the sleeves, while unobtrusive symbols are meant to characterise the sitters – such as the spectacles identifying the present sitter as a learned person. The fur-trimmed clothes are suggestive of the sitter’s wealth. Comparable portraits by this master are preserved in the National Museum of Norway in Oslo (see fig. 2) and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

additional picture: 
fig. 1: infrared image of the painting
fig. 2: Master of the 1540s, Oslo, Nasjonalgalleriet