Born around the end of the second decade of the 16th century, Anthony More trained with the Romanist painter Jan van Scorel, a prominent portraitist and excellent connoisseur of the Italian cultural scene having sojourned on the Italian peninsula on several occasions. The young artist thus learned the principles of technique and aesthetics applied to portrait painting. He soon came into contact with the court, and frequented the circle of the regent, Mary of Hungary, Emperor Charles V's sister. In 1549 he painted Cardinal Granville (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) and the Duke of Alba (The Hispanic Society of America, New York) and managed to portray the future Philip II during his first trip to the Netherlands. Shortly afterwards he painted the likenesses of the future Emperor Maximilian II and his wife, María of Austria, in 1550 and 1551 respectively (Museo del Prado, Madrid). Such prestigious commissions enhanced his fame, securing him a foothold in the northern European art world. Studying Titian's oeuvre enabled him to conceive a type of image endowed with elegance and dignity -necessary characteristics when depicting sitters of lofty status, many of them celebrated governors and distinguished members of the high society that ruled the powerful states of the Western world. The personages found in Anthony More's works display gravity, reserve and a certain aristocratic aloofness in their bearing, in contrast to the pompous gestures of which portraitists of the previous generation, such as Vermeyen, were fond. The painter, who travelled around various countries, journeyed to Spain for the last time at the beginning of Philip II’s reign (1556-1598), accompanying the sovereign in order to execute works for his close circle. He returned to his home country in 1560 and remained there, paying no heed to the monarch’s requests for him to come back to Spain, until he died in Antwerp before turning 60 (Luna, J. J.: From Titian to Goya. Great Masters of the Museo del Prado, National Art Museum of China-Shanghai Museum, 2007, pp. 390-391).