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The workshop of Jan Massys (c. 1509-1575) in Amberes produced a number of copies of this image based on a protoype by Quinten Massys, Jan’s father. Notable is the saint’s powerful look, which bestows dignity upon him. In line with new humanist ideas, the Church Father’s appearance of an aged scholar is abandoned, while the reference to the transience of life made through the skull and the depictio
On the reverse of this portrait is an old inscription in ink reading ‘MAESTRO QUINTIN’. Bosque attributed it to that artist in his catalogue, although emphasising the difference of technique between this work and that used for the old woman in The Temptations of Saint Anthony by Joachim Patinir and Quinten Massys (Madrid, Museo del Prado, P-1615), painted prior to 1522. He suggests that the presen
