Jan Gossaert

was one of the great North­ern painters of the late Renais­sance. Gos­saert was born about 1478 and died in 1532. He was also called Jan Mabuse and Jen­nyn Van Hene­gouwe. In 1508 he trav­eled with his patron Phillip of Bur­gundy to Italy. His mature style became a bril­liant syn­the­sis of tra­di­tional Flem­ish tight real­ism, Ital­ian Renais­sance styles, and the inno­va­tions of Albrect Dürer. He was one of the first North­ern artist to paint large-scale sec­u­lar nudes as dec­o­ra­tion for an Italian-style palace for his human­ist mas­ter Phillip.

This paint­ing is his last. It depicts Danaë as she is approached by Zeus as a beam of sun­light, just before the god impreg­nates her with the hero Perseus (Greek myths are like that). The sub­ject was also painted by Tit­ian and Rem­brandt, but I am par­tic­u­larly fond of Gossaert’s version.