Orley, Bernard van

(1491/1492-1542)

   The leading painter in Brussels in the first half of the 15th century; influenced by the Northern Mannerists, particularly Jan Gossart. In 1515, van Orley was commissioned by Philip the Handsome to paint six portraits of his children to be given to the king of Denmark. This led to his appointment as court painter to Margaret of Austria in 1518 and, when Margaret died in 1530, van Orley worked as court painter to her successor as regent of the Netherlands, Mary of Hungary. From 1517, van Orley supervised the execution of tapestries made after Raphael's cartoons, and with this he was exposed firsthand to the Italian manner. His Job Altarpiece (1521; Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts) is a Mannerist triptych painted for Margaret. The central panel shows the Destruction of the Children of Job, a violent scene contained in an Italianate architectural setting. His Last Judgment Altarpiece (1525; Antwerp, Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts) shows Italianate nudes in unusual poses, typical of the Mannerist style. Above is a domelike rendition of heaven, where Christ sits at the apex, recalling the semicircular sky in Raphael's Disputa in the Stanza della Segnatura (1510-1511) at the Vatican. On the side wings, van Orley depicted the Seven Acts of Mercy to elucidate the Christian belief that charitable acts can lead to salvation. Van Orley was also an accomplished portraitist. His portraits Doctor Joris van Zelle (1519; Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts), of a physician working in Brussels, and Charles V (1521; Budapest, Szepmuveszeti Muzeum) present two monumentalized figures placed in a confined setting. Along with Gossart, Joos van Cleve, and Jan van Scorel, van Orley was responsible for introducing to the Low Countries the latest Italian art developments.