From Leyden we may pass to Utrecht, which was the birthplace of the
much-travelled, distinguished, and cosmopolitan painter, Antonis Mor
(1512-1578?). He was a pupil of Jan Scorel, but soon freed himself
from the hard manner he acquired under that master by his study in
Italy of the best works of the Venetians. Indeed, some of his pictures
have passed as the work of Calcar, the pupil of Titian. Mor, or Moro,
excelled as a painter of vigorous and truthful portraits, and the
portraits and replicas he painted of Queen Mary are well known. The
Prado Gallery at Madrid and the Vienna Gallery contain good examples
of his art, and he is fairly well represented in the Louvre. While he
was in the service of Philip II. of Spain he lived in much splendour,
and was amply paid for his work. His close intimacy with the monarch
induced him on one occasion to take the liberty of touching with a
brush dipped in red paint the hand of the king. This serious breach
of Court etiquette created a profound impression on the courtiers
present; and, although the painter sued for pardon and obtained it from
the king, he soon recognised that he had made himself obnoxious to the
Inquisition, who asserted that Moro had got from the heretic English,
while painting the portrait of Queen Mary, a charm that enabled him to
bewitch the Spanish monarch. Being thus compelled to leave Spain, he
settled in Antwerp, where he died between 1576 and 1578.
The pictures of Mor, who was the contemporary of Titian, at different
periods of his art bear traces of the Dutch, Spanish, and Flemish
schools. He in turn also had an influence on the portrait painters of
Spain half a century before the birth of Velazquez. The _Portrait of a
Man_ (No. 2478), which is signed and dated:
“_ANT MORO pingebat, 1565_,”
was in the past held by some writers to bear the features of Sir
Francis Drake, who was, however, at the date here given only twenty-one
years of age. The two large paintings in the Duchâtel Bequest which
pass as the _Portrait of Louis de Rio_ and _His Wife_ (No. 2480 and No.
2481) are, judging by the attitudes of the figures and the shape of the
panels, the wings of a large altarpiece. _The Dwarf of Charles V._ (No.
2479) reminds us that the painter, while still young, was taken into
the service of that emperor. _The Portrait of Edward VI. of England_
(No. 2481A) bears a very suspicious-looking inscription.