Michiel Coxcie, The Flemish Raphael

The Flemish Raphael

Michiel Coxcie (1499 - 1592) was known to his contemporaries as The Flemish Raphael. The nickname illustrates just how highly they rated Coxcie’s talent. And rightly so, for Coxcie was one of the sixteenth century’s most influential painters. In his day Michiel Coxcie was a celebrated painter, inundated with prestigious commissions from important clients. He had spent some ten years in Rome where he studied classical antiquity and the art of Renaissance masters like Raphael, Michelangelo and Da Vinci.

Michiel Coxcie, naar Jan en Hubert van Eyck, De ridders (detail)

Back in his own country, Coxcie designed altarpieces, stained-glass windows and tapestries for clients in Brussels, Antwerp and Mechelen. The pinnacle of his career was his appointment as court painter to Emperor Charles V and Philip II. Coxcie’s contemporaries drew inspiration from his innovative style and compositions and even in the centuries after his death artists still marvelled at his oeuvre. Peter Paul Rubens was one of those inspired by Coxcie. However, over the centuries Coxcie gradually fell into oblivion and today the general public barely knows his name. So it is high time we put the spotlight on Michiel Coxcie!

Curators: prof. dr. Koenraad Jonckheere (Ghent University) & dr. Peter Carpreau (M Leuven)

Exhibition view Michiel Coxcie. The Flemish Raphael, M Leuven | photo: Dirk Pauwels

Michiel Coxcie. The Flemish Raphael, the first retrospective of the talented master’s multifaceted oeuvre, a large number of paintings, monumental stained-glass windows, graphics and tapestries adorn the walls of the M- Museum Leuven. The exhibition covers the various aspects of Coxcie’s life and work, from his youth and his stay in Italy through to his greatest achievements in the Netherlands. Paintings by Coxcie from the M collection are juxtaposed with European loans. Among other things, you will see Coxcie’s famous copy of the Lamb of God. This imposing work is shown in its entirety for the first time.

Installatiezicht Michiel Coxcie. De Vlaamse Rafaël

Highlights

Coxcie ‘improves’ the Lamb of God

At the end of the 1550s Coxcie moved to Ghent, the reason being to make a copy of the famous Lamb of God by the Van Eyck brothers as requested by Philip II. The king would of course have preferred to purchase the original, but as the church would not allow it, he hired the services of Coxcie to make a copy.

The Holy Kinship

You might not think so today, but for an observer in the1540s this painting was very modern. Coxcie painted the work not long after his return from Italy. It served as a sort of calling card. With this work he showed that he had mastered the Italian style, while not forgetting his roots.

Moving with the times!

What better way to show that you are moving with the times than to have your portrait painted by the leading artist of the day! And that’s exactly what Maximiliaan Morillon did! He was the eldest son of Guy Morillon, Emperor Charles V’s secretary. Given that Coxcie was Charles V’s favourite painter, he was the obvious choice for this altarpiece.