Michael Sittow

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Michael Sittow, also Michel Sittow or "Michiel"^[1] (b. and d. Reval, now Tallinn c.1469–1525/1526) was a painter from modern Estonia who was trained in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting, perhaps by Hans Memling, and worked for Isabella of Castille and the Habsburgs and others in Spain and the Netherlands. He may have visited London in about 1503-05, although this cannot be documented. The theory is based purely on the portraits of Henry VII (National Portrait Gallery, London) and that thought to be Catherine of Aragon (Vienna), though it may well not be of her. He was especially notable as a portrait painter, though he also did religious and other subjects. Few works certainly by him survive, and there are many problems of attribution around his work. Though his biography is well documented, the only works that can be certainly attributed to him are two rather untypical very small panels from a large series mostly by Juan de Flandes for Queen Isabella. The Guevara portrait, and the Virgin which was once the other half of a diptych with it (Berlin), are nearly certain, as Diego's son writes of his father's portrait by Sittow.^[2]

He returned to Reval in 1506 to settle his inheritance, joined the local painters' guild in 1507, and married there in 1508. In 1514 he appears to have been called away to visit Denmark, following which he worked again for the Habsburgs in the Netherlands. He married for a second time in Reval in 1518, and appears to have remained there until his death in 1525/6.^[3]

[edit] See also

• Artists of the Tudor court

[edit] References