Frans Floris was born in Antwerp ca. 1519 into a prominent family of artists. His father, Cornelis I Floris, was a stonecutter; his brothers all became artists. Cornelis II became a very important architect and sculptor (one of the designers of the Antwerp city hall), Jacob a painter of stained-glass windows and Jan a Potter. Little documentary evidence of Frans Floris’ life remains; most of what we know about him today has come down to us through his extensive biography in Karel van Mander’s Schilder-Boeck (1604). Frans was possibly first trained as a sculptor by his father, before being apprenticed to the Liège-based painter Lambert Lombard. He became a member of the Antwerp guild of St Luke in 1540. Frans travelled to Italy in 1541, where he studied the art and architecture of ancient Rome, as well as the work by contemporary Italian artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo, who would greatly influence him. In 1545 he returned to Antwerp and opened his workshop, where a whole generation of 16th-century artists worked and trained under his guidance. Van Mander lists 26 pupils of Floris’, but the actual number of his assistants may well have exceeded one hundred. In 1547 Floris married Clara Boudewijns; the couple had one daughter and two sons, both of whom were later trained as artists by their father.

 

Floris quickly became one of the most important Netherlandish artists of his day, enjoying the patronage of many wealthy and noble personalities, including the Antwerp banker and collector Nicolaes Jonghelinck and the duke of Aarschot. In 1549 he was tasked with the design of the decorations for the joyous entry into Antwerp of Charles V of Spain. Furthermore, Floris was well acquainted with several of Antwerp’s leading humanists, including Abraham Ortelius and Christophe Plantin. Floris was a prolific painter, who mainly produced large-scale altar pieces and mythological or allegorical compositions and, to a lesser extent, a small number of excellent portraits. In Italy, Floris had seen how workshops used study heads (life-size representations of people’s heads, painted in oil on panel or paper) for studio use; upon his return to Antwerp he introduced the practice in his own workshop. He further developed the use of these studies: first exclusively intended for studio use – so his assistants could copy these heads into larger compositions – they later on evolved into works of art in their own right, which is evidenced by the fact that they quickly became desired collector’s items. Several examples of such study heads were handled by the gallery in the past (one now in a private collection, Geneva; another in a Flemish private collection).

 

The present work is an excellent example of Floris' studio practice. Quickly and expressively painted, yet very precise in its detail – notice the wisps of hair and the crinkles around the eyes – these head studies are a testament to the great draughtsmanship of Frans Floris. However, this does not tell the whole story. Macro XRF-scans taken of the panel have shown that the painting was altered shortly after its completion, when the figure to the left - a portrait of a cleric, probably a cardinal - was painted over another figure, which was partially scratched out. Pigment analyses shows that this alteration took place early, probably in the second half of the 16th century. This, combined with the slightly tight framing of the figures, would suggest the painting was possibly cut from a larger composition, which could be seen in the light of the destruction wrought by the iconoclasts during the 1566 Beeldenstorm. Several major works by Floris, such as his Ascension of the Virgin, painted for the Antwerp Church of Our Lady, were damaged and later restored - and in some cases probably repurposed - by Floris.