PEPIJN, Marten
(b. 1575, Antwerpen, d. ca. 1643, Antwerpen)

Crossing of the Red Sea

1626
Oil on panel, 169 x 243 cm
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

Marten Pepijn became a master in Antwerp in 1600. However, works ascribed to him with certainty and dated, particularly large-sized religious pictures, are only known from the 1620s onwards. His detailed narrative style, and his realistic, sometimes even caricaturistic characterization of figures are recognizably similar to the style of Amdrosius Francken, so that there are grounds for assuming that he was trained in Francken's prestigious studio. But at the same time he also incorporated motifs which are clearly derived from Rubens.