Mander, Karel van

(1548-1606)

   Dutch Mannerist painter who authored the Schilderboeck (first published in 1604), a biographical compendium of artists and their works from the ancient era to the author's days. For art historians, this book is one of the major sources of information on the lives of the Northern masters of the 15th and 16th centuries. For this, van Mander has been called the "Vasari of the North." Van Mander was in Rome from 1573 to 1577 and it is there that he became aware of Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, which inspired him to write the Schilderboeck. It is also there that he was exposed to the Mannerist mode he adopted as his own. He spent some years wondering through the Netherlands, finally settling in Haarlem in 1583 where, together with Hendrik Goltzius and Cornelis van Haarlem, he established an academy and developed a Dutch Mannerist style. Van Mander died in Amsterdam where he spent the last two years of his life. Among his most notable works are The Flood(c. 1583; Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum), the Continence of Scipio (1600; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), and the Garden of Love (1602; St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum).