around 1474 -1552/1553 · Haarlem and court of Margaret of Austria

Individualized portraits, precise altarpieces and landscapes of invention place Jan Mostaert at the crossroads of Haarlem tradition, court culture and the first European colonial imaginations.

Jan Jansz Mostaert was born in Haarlem around 1474 into a wealthy family linked to the profession of miller. According to tradition, he trained with Jacob Jansz, perhaps identifiable with the Master of the Diptych of Brunswick. Documented as a painter in 1498, he entered the guild of Saint Luke of Haarlem in 1502 and became dean on several occasions. His commissions include portraits, altarpiece shutters and devotional paintings, several of which were intended for the churches of Haarlem and Hoorn disappeared. In 1518, Margaret of Austria named him "painter of honors", as several ensembles for the churches of Haarlem and Hoorn disappeared. In 1518, Marguerite of Austria named him "painter of honors". His commissions included portraits, altarpiece shutters and devotional paintings, several of which were intended for the churches of Haarlem and Hoorn disappeared. In 1518, Marguerite of Austria named him "painter of honors". His commissions included portraits, altarpiece shutters and devotional paintings, several of which were intended for the churches of Haarlem and Hoorn disappeared. In 1518, Marguerite of Austria named him "painter of honors". Documents do not prove that he resided at his court for eighteen years, as Van Mander later asserted links with aristocratic circles. Mostaert excels in portraiture. The Portrait of an African Man, painted around 1525 -1530, constitutes an exceptional case in the European painting of his time: the model is not a symbolic type but an individual dressed in European style, carrying sword, gloves and pilgrimage badge. His identity remains uncertain, sometimes close to Christophle the More, guard of Charles V. The Double Portrait of Adriaen van de Broucke and Catharina Vranx puts the same precision at the service of the couple and their status. Mostaert also practices the grand narrative. The Adoration of the Magi combines costume, architecture and meditation in a dense but calm space. Landscape with an episode of the conquest of America is not a direct testimony: it constructs from Europe an imaginary colonial scene, revealing the information, fantasies and power relations which circulated at the beginning of the 16th century. Died in Haarlem in 1552 or 1553, Mostaert leaves a work reconstructed with caution, where the individual, devotion and elsewhere occupy unique places. The "Jan Mostaert" selection notably compares Portrait of an African Man and Landscape with an episode of the conquest of America. His reading favors details.

Mostaert gives a face to the changing world: the portrait affirms the individual, while the landscape reveals the horizons and projections of his time.