BENING, Simon
(b. 1483, Ghent, d. 1561, Bruges)

Henry III, Count of Nassau-Breda and Mencía de Mendoza

c. 1531
Tempera on parchment mounted on oak panels, 8 x 6 cm (each)
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

These illuminations are reduced and simplified versions of Jan Gossart's larger panel paintings, now lost.

As chamberlain to Emperor Charles V, Henry III was one of the most powerful and influential members of the court - indeed the Habsburg Empire. Mencía de Mendoza, his wife, was exceptionally cultivated and well educated in the humanist tradition, having grown up in an important noble family. At various times, she employed the most noted painters in Flanders: Bernaert van Orley, Jan Gossart, Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen, Maerten van Heemskerck, and Simon Bening.