SWART VAN GRONINGEN, Jan
(b. ca. 1500, Groningen, d. ca. 1560, Antwerpen)

Biography

Northern Netherlandish printmaker, painter and designer of stained glass. Van Mander recorded that Swart spent several years in Gouda (probably c. 1522-3), where he was the teacher of Adriaen (Pietersz.) Crabeth (d 1553), brother of the famous stained-glass designers Dirk and Wouter Crabeth. From van Mander it is also known that Swart travelled to Italy. He may have gone from Venice to Constantinople, before he designed another work mentioned by van Mander, the Procession of Turkish Riders, a set of five woodcuts (1526) depicting Sultan Suleyman the Great and his entourage and executed by Willem Liefrinck (1490-1542). Van Mander did not know any paintings by Swart, but he reported that he did paint landscapes and figures, according to him, in the style of Jan van Scorel.



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