VERMEYEN, Jan Cornelisz.
(b. ca. 1500, Beverwijk, d. 1559, Bruxelles)

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

c. 1525
Oil on panel, 65 x 47 cm
Private collection

There are no records of where Vermeyen was trained as an artist. Opinions vary as to whether it was with Jan van Scorel, Bernard van Orley, or Jan Gossart. The early work by Vermeyen, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, establishes a link with Gossart: Vermeyen's Judith recalls Gossart's Magdalen in Boston, both exuding an unsettling sense of eroticism.