Erasmus Quellinus I or Erasmus Quellinus the Elder (alternate names: Erasmus Quellinck, Erasme Quellin (I)) (

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium. With more than 41,500 inhabitants, it is on ...

, 1584 -

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, 22 January 1640) was a

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

best known for classically inspired

ornamentation An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration * Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts * Ornamental turning * Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals ...

work and copies after the

antique An antique () is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely to describe any object that i ...

. He was the founder of an important Antwerp dynasty of artists.

Life

Details of his early life and training have not survived. He became master of the Antwerp

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was iden ...

in 1606. He married Betje van Uden, the sister of the painter

Lucas van Uden Lucas van Uden (18 October 1595 – 4 November 1672) was a leading Flemish Landscape art, landscape painter, draughtsman and engraver, who lived and worked in Antwerp. He was a leading landscape painter who collaborated with various local fi ...

. The couple had three sons:

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

, who would become a

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and engraver,

Artus Artus or Arthus is a Breton surname or name which means "bear" (cf. arth), and may refer to: * Amédée Artus (1815–1892), French conductor and composer of operettas * Alexandre Artus (1821–1911), French conductor and composer of classical music ...

, who would follow in his father's footsteps and become a sculptor, and Hubertus, who became an engraver and painter. His daughter Cornelia Quellinus married his pupil, the sculptor Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder.Hans Vlieghe and iris Kockelbergh. "Quellinus."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. March 23. 2014 He was the teacher of Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder, Melchior Charles, Wallerant Vaillant, Joos Sterck (1607); Rombout Claes (1609), Melchior van der Lanen (1612), Hans Franscoys (1614), Hans Bernaert (or Beernart) (1615) and Christoffel de la Fontaine (1633–34).Biographical details
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Work

His work is not well known since only a few of his works have survived. Erasmus is primarily known as a sculptor who drew inspiration from antiquity. He worked in the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style although his later work shows a development towards early

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

. The bulk of his commissions consisted of the renovation and replacement of church furniture that had been destroyed during the

iconoclastic Iconoclasm ()From . ''Iconoclasm'' may also be considered as a back-formation from ''iconoclast'' (Greek: εἰκοκλάστης). The corresponding Greek word for iconoclasm is εἰκονοκλασία, ''eikonoklasia''. is the social belie ...

troubles of the 16th century. Besides decorative work, he is known to have made individual statues, none of which have survived. In 1635 he was awarded the contract to make the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

of the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Antwerp. This work is an example of early Baroque in Antwerp and shows Erasmus’ mastery of balance and symmetry, even though there is no sense of realism. The

in the St. Gummarus Church in Lier is another of his known commissions.Pulpit in the St. Gummarus Church in Lier
He made the original design for the pulpit, which, after his death, was somewhat changed by his son Artus while Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder executed the design.Helena Bussers, ''De baroksculptuur en het barok''
at Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen

References

Sources

*Hans Vlieghe, "Erasmus Quellinus I," ''Grove Art Online''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, ovember 9, 2007 *Hans Vlieghe (1998). ''Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585-1700''. Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Quellinus I, Erasmus 17th-century Flemish sculptors 1580s births 1640 deaths Painters from Antwerp