Along with
Albert Cornelis (before 1513–1531) and
Ambrosius Benson (before 1518–1550), a painter from
Lombardy, he worked in the workshop of Bruges' leading painter
Gerard David, while he was already a master at that time. Isenbrandt is mentioned in the book
De Gandavensibus et Brugensibus eruditionis laude claris libri duo by the priest
Antonius Sanderus, published in
Amsterdam in 1624. This writer refers to texts of the Florentine
Lodovico Guicciardini, the Schilderboeck of
Karel van Mander and the (lost) notes of the Ghent jurist
Dionysius Hardwijn (or Harduinus, 1530–1604). The latter, who had spent several years in Bruges about 1550, mentions Isenbrandt as a disciple of the old Gerard David, who excelled "in nudes and in portraits". He may have travelled to
Genoa in 1511 together with
Joachim Patinir and Gerard David. The influence of Gerard David shows clearly in the composition and the landscape background of the works attributed to Isenbrandt. In his critical exhibition catalogue of
Early Flemish Masters in Bruges in 1902, the
Ghent great connoisseur of early Flemish Art and art historian Georges Hulin de Loo, came to the conclusion that Isenbrandt was actually the anonymous
Master of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin and the author of a large body of paintings previously attributed to Gerard David and
Jan Mostaert by the German art historian
Gustav Friedrich Waagen. He is therefore sometimes called the Pseudo-Mostaert. Even if this attribution to Isenbrandt cannot be proven without doubt, it is now generally accepted by some art historians, although many others regard Isenbrandt as a convenient label for a body of work by many different artists. No surviving painting can be firmly documented as by Isenbrandt. A document stating that he sent some paintings from Antwerp to Spain shows that worked for export as well as the local market, and suggests his international reputation. Two paintings usually associated with him are dated, both in 1518 : •
Portrait of Paulus de Nigro (Groeninge Museum, Bruges) (1518) • The
Bröhmse triptych with the
Adoration by the Magi. This was his most monumental work, but it was destroyed in 1942 when the Marienkirche in Lübeck was bombed. For
Max J. Friedländer, this was the key work to be used in establishing his style. One of his first paintings (c. 1518–1521) was the "Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, adored by the family Van de Velde", a diptych that can be seen in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges and its left panel in the
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. It was common practice for major artists, such as Isenbrandt, to paint only the major parts of his paintings, such as faces and the flesh parts of his figures. His faces and flesh areas are set apart by brown
pigment. The background was then filled in by assistants. The end quality of a work depended largely on the quality of the execution and the competency of the assistants, leading to an uneven quality of his works. These assistants also painted, as this was common practice in those times, many versions of the "Madonna and Child", that were then attributed to Isenbrandt, giving him the reputation of having had an enormous body of work. The exhibition in Bruges of
Early Netherlandish painting in 1902 showed therefore a large collection of his works. Unlike many contemporary colleagues, he is only documented with one assistant, Cornelis van Callenberghe, who joined his workshop in 1520. In 1520 he worked, together with
Albert Cornelis and
Lanceloot Blondeel, on the decorations for the
Triumphal Entry of Emperor
Charles V into Bruges. His paintings are executed meticulously and with great refinement. His figures are painted in warmer tones and more lively colours, than the works of Gerard David. Especially the flaming red or the dark blue set against an idyllic background of a lush, hilly landscape with castles situated on top of a vertical rock (typical for Isenbrandt), sinuous rivers and thick-leaved trees (showing the influence of Gerard David). He not only copied the compositions of Gerard David, but also from older painters such as
Jan van Eyck,
Hugo van der Goes and
Hans Memling. He borrowed compositions from
Jan Gossaert (leading to the confusion with this painter) and drawings from
Albrecht Dürer and
Martin Schongauer. Such borrowing from older compositions was the order of the day and common practice. Nevertheless, the paintings of Adriaen Isenbrandt retain their individuality. He also painted some portraits, such as the portrait of Paulus de Nigro (Groeninge Museum, Bruges ), "Man weighing gold" (1515–1520) (Metropolitan Museum, New York ) and "Young Man with a Rosary" (Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California ). These portraits, even if they are stereotypical and lifeless, are executed with a soft touch and
sfumato effect in the contours. The influence of the Italian Renaissance can be seen in the detailed addition of fashionable scenery elements such as
volutes, antique pillars and ram's heads, such as in his painting of the "
Mass of Saint Gregory the Great" ( J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles ). and "Mary and Child" (1520–1530) (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam ). Through these elements he may be regarded as a precursor of the Renaissance painter
Lanceloot Blondeel. He is often compared with
Ambrosius Benson (c. 1495–1550), a painter from
Lombardy who emigrated to Bruges. He may have introduced the sfumato technique to Isenbrandt. Together with Benson, Isenbrandt belongs to a generation overlapping and succeeding the generation of Gerard David and
Jan Provoost. ==Selected works==