Simon Bening

Self-portrait, tempera on parchment (8.5 cm × 5.7 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The inscription in Latin reads "Simon Bennik. Alexandri. [F]ilius Se Ipsu. Pi[n]gebat. Ano. Aetatis. 75. 1558." ("Simon Bennik, the son of Alexander, painted this himself at the age of 75 in 1558").[1]

Simon Bening (c. 1483 – 1561) was a Flemish miniaturist, generally regarded as the last major artist of the Netherlandish tradition.[2]

Bening, born either in Ghent or Antwerp, was probably trained by his father, illuminator Alexander Bening, in the family workshop in Ghent. He travelled between Ghent and Bruges and became a member of the guild of San John and Saint Luke in Bruges as an illuminator in 1508. He made his own name after moving to Bruges in about 1510, where he had lived since. From 1517 to 1555 he is listed regularly in the guild's annual accounts. Bening served as a dean of the calligraphers, booksellers, illuminators and bookbinders in the Guild of Saint John and Saint Luke three separate times (1524, 1536, 1546).[3]

He was married twice and had six daughters. Two of them continued the family artistic tradition: Levina Teerlinc became a miniature painter, mostly of portrait miniatures, and emigrated to England, and Alexandrine Claeiszuene became a successful art dealer.[4]

  1. ^ Hindman (1997), 112
  2. ^ Morrison and Kren (2006), 68
  3. ^ "Simon Bening biography". Getty Museum. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  4. ^ Hindman (1997), 98