Maerten van Heemskerck (1498-1574)

• Was a Dutch portrait and religious painter.
• Heemskerck spent most of his career in Haarlem.
• He began his artistic training with the painter Cornelius Willemsz in Haarlem and Later he was a pupil of Jan van Scorel.
• He spent the years 1532–6 in Italy.
• He produced many designs for engravers. 
• Before setting off for Italy on a Grand Tour in 1532, Heemskerck painted a scene of St. Luke painting the Virgin for the altar of St. Luke in the Bavokerk.
• An inscription, incorporated into a tromp l'oeil label on the painting begins "This picture is a remembrance from its painter, Marten Heemskerck; he has here dedicated his labours to St Luke as a proof of regard to his associates in his profession, of which that saint is patron".
• Heemskerck produced designs for a set of engravings, showing eight, rather than the usual seven wonders of the ancient world.
• The displayed painting is crop from: Momus rebukes the works of the gods, 1561.
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