Gillis Mostaert (Hulst 1528 - 1598 Antwerp)

Gillis and his twin-brother Frans Mostaert were born in 1528 in Hulst, a small town not far from Antwerp. They grew up to be third-generation painters: their father, who was a minor painter of whom little is known, was their first teacher. Their grandfather, Jan Mostaert (ca. 1475 - 1555/6), was a renowned portrait and altarpiece painter from Haarlem. The Mostaert family moved to Antwerp, where there were more opportunities for Mostaert senior, and the brothers Gillis and Frans were taught by Jan Mandijn and Herri met de Bles, respectively. Since there are quite a few stylistic similarities between Gillis’ early oeuvre and that of Frans Floris, it has been suggested that he spent some time in the latter’s workshop (or in that of one of Floris’ pupils) as well.

 

According to the liggeren (ledgers) of the Antwerp guild of St Luke, Gillis became a member of the guild ca. 1554/5. He took on several pupils, including Baptist Grapheus and Hendrik Pieters, about whom nothing is known. According to Karel van Mander, who included the Mostaert brothers in his Schilder-boeck (Haarlem, 1604), Gillis van Coninxloo was another pupil of Gillis’. Similarly van Mander mentions Hans (Jan) Soens as a pupil who lived in Gillis’ house and copied many works by Frans. In 1563 Gillis married Margaretha Baes; the couple had no less than 10 children. In 1588 Mostaert paid his yearly dues to the guild for the last time. He died in 1598, leaving an estate consisting mostly of debt. 

 

Mostaert was a talented figure painter, who also produced many fine landscape paintings. He contributed greatly to the development of subgenres such as the winter landscape (winterkens), and the nightly landscape (often with fire: brandekens). Gillis was well integrated in the Antwerp artistic milieu of his time, painting the staffage in works by colleagues such as Cornelis van Dalem, Hans Vredeman de Vries and Jacob Grimmer. As one of the most important masters in 16th-century Antwerp, his work was eagerly collected, as is evidenced by the many mentions of works by his hand in the estate inventories of the period. One contemporary Antwerp collector, Filips van Valckenisse, owned about 80 paintings by and after Mostaert.

 

Mostaert painted biblical subjects as well as kermesse paintings, landscapes and portraits. According to Cornelis de Bie, who praised the painter highly, he was very adept at ‘klein te schilderen […] de gheschiedenissen van het Oudt en nieuw Testament’ (painting histories from the Old and New Testament at a small-scale). As such, the present work is an excellent example of his style and preferred subject matter. Painted on a oak single panel and executed in Mostaert’s typical colour palette - brown/green for the landscape, with more brightly coloured staffage - this small recently rediscovered work it is a beautiful addition to his oeuvre. Though the work is religious/allegorical in nature, the influence of Bosch’s hellish landscapes is also somehow present, notably in the figure of the Devil. 

 

The Devil sowing Tares is a parable from the New Testament (Matthew 13:24-43), where “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

 

According to this parable, the (righteous) wheat will go to the barn (heaven), while the (evil) weed will be burned (in hell) at the end of times. Mostaert’s learned audience will have had no trouble deciphering the meaning of the panel. However, as a lot of emphasis seems to have been placed on the sleeping peasants, the scene can also be seen as an allegory of the dangers of idleness. While everyone is fast asleep, their work is being undone by the Devil, who is sowing his weeds unopposed and unseen. This moralizing interpretation is reinforced by the presence of the grinning horse in the background, mocking its snoozing owner.

 

According to K. Michiels, the present work may be considered Mostaert’s earliest known landscape; he dates it to the first half of the 1560’s. He also points out a third interpretation of the work, as the verse “Let both of them grow together until the harvest” (Matthew 13:30) was used by a number of 16th-century theologians as an argument for religious tolerance and freedom from persecution. This would explain why the subject of The Devil sowing Tares enjoyed a degree of popularity in Antwerp in the second half of the 16th century. Other versions of the subject were painted by Pieter Balten, the Master of the Prodigal Son, Jacob Grimmer and even Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Timken Art Gallery, San Diego, inv. no. 1957:002).