An amusing anecdote is related of this eminent painter. He was
inordinately given to dissipation, and spent all his money, as fast as
he earned it, in carousing with his boon companions. He was for a long
time in the service of the Marquess de Veren, for whom he executed some
of his most capital works. It happened on one occasion that the Emperor
Charles V. made a visit to the Marquess, who made magnificent
preparations for his reception, and among other things ordered all his
household to be dressed in white damask. When the tailor came to measure
Mabuse, he desired to have the damask, under the pretence of inventing a
singular habit. He sold it immediately, spent the money, and then
painted a paper suit, so like damask that it was not distinguished as he
walked in procession between a philosopher and a poet, other pensioners
of the Marquess; but the joke was too good to be kept, so his friends
betrayed him to the Marquess, who, instead of being displeased was
highly diverted, and asked the Emperor which of the three suits he liked
best. The Emperor pointed to that of Mabuse, as excelling in whiteness
and beauty of the flowers; and when he was told of the painter's
stratagem, he would not believe it, till he had examined it with his own
hands.