CLERCK, Hendrik de

Clerck was a Flemish painter. He spent the greater part of his successful career in Brussels. He was the pupil of Marten de Vos and carried the Mannerist tradition far into the 17th century. In 1606 he was appointed Court Painter to Archduke Albert. He was primarily a painter of altarpieces and a characteristic example of his style is the Family of the Virgin (Musées Royaux, Brussels. 1590), with its Italianate figures clad in restless draperies and placed in a coldly classicalGLOSSARYRelating to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (classical Antiquity). The classical world played a profoundly important role in the Renaissance, with Italian scholars, writers, and artists seeing their own period as the rebirth (the "renaissance") of classical values after the Middle Ages. The classical world was considered the golden age for the arts, literature, philosophy, and politics. Concepts of the classical, however, changed greatly from one period to the next. Roman literature provided the starting point in the 14th century, scholars patiently finding, editing and translating a wide range of texts. In the 15th century Greek literature, philosophy and art - together with the close study of the remains of Roman buildings and sculptures-expanded the concept of the classical and ensured it remained a vital source of ideas and inspiration. building.