1. For most of his life, Michael Sittow worked as a court portrait painter, for Isabella of Castile and her Habsburg relatives in Spain and the Netherlands, and other prominent royal houses.
25 Facts About Michael Sittow
1. 2.
Michael Sittow is considered one of the most important Netherlandish painters of the era.
3.
Michael Sittow was born in 1468 or 1469 in the Hanseatic city of Reval to a wealthy family.
4.
Michael Sittow's father was the painter and wood-carver Clawes Sittow and his mother was Margarethe Molner.
5.
Michael Sittow was the eldest of three brothers, followed by Clawes and Jasper.
6.
Michael Sittow's father was apparently a wealthy man for an artist, owning several houses in the city, and becoming an assessor in the artists' guild of Reval in 1479.
7.
Michael Sittow's mother was a Swedish-speaker and daughter of a wealthy merchant Olef Molner from Finland.
8.
At first Michael Sittow studied painting and sculpture in his father's workshop, while attending the city school to learn Latin, arithmetic and singing.
9.
From 1492 Michael Sittow worked in Toledo, Spain for Isabella of Castile as court painter.
10.
Michael Sittow was the highest-paid painter in the queen's court, receiving a salary of 50,000 maravedis a year.
11.
Michael Sittow collaborated with Juan de Flandes on the series of small panels of the lives of Christ and the Virgin for the queen.
12.
When Philip died in 1506, Michael Sittow lost his patron again.
13.
Michael Sittow won the case in Lubeck, but could not officially register his parents' houses as his property until the death of his stepfather in 1518.
14.
In 1507, Michael Sittow joined the Guild of Saint Canute, the local painters' guild, and married in 1508.
15.
Michael Sittow completed various local orders and worked for the St Peter's Church in Siuntio, Finland.
16.
In 1515, Michael Sittow was again in Spain, this time to claim outstanding debts incurred by Isabella of Castile, and it is significant that in the documentation for his claim he is referred to as pintor criado de madama la princesa dona Margarita, that is "painter of the princess Margaret ".
17.
In 1514, Michael Sittow visited Copenhagen, to paint the portrait of Christian II of Denmark.
18.
In 1523, Michael Sittow became the guildmaster of the Guild of Saint Canute.
19.
Michael Sittow is buried in the cemetery of the almshouse of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Tallinn.
20.
The name of Michael Sittow was nearly unknown for centuries, until in 1914 Max J Friedlander put forward a hypothesis that Master Michiel, court painter of Queen Isabella, is the author of the diptych discovered near Burgos, depicting the Virgin and Child on one side and a Knight of the Order of Calatrava on the other.
21.
Michael Sittow specialized mainly in small devotional works and portraits, which sometimes project a melancholy mood.
22.
Michael Sittow's style is heavily influenced by his teacher Hans Memling and show influence of the elegance found in portraits by Jean Perreal.
23.
Michael Sittow used translucent layers of paint to achieve highly refined and subdued color harmonies, combined with light effects and sensitivity to texture.
24.
Michael Sittow's portraits are among the finest of their time, vivid, candid, crisply elegant and reserved.
25.
Michael Sittow is the main character in Jaan Kross' short story Four Monologues on St George.