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Antonio Moro

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ANTONIO MORO ( c. 1512-1575), otherwise known as Sir Anthony More, the eminent portrait-painter, was born at Utrecht in 1512 according to some, but in 1525 according to Karl van Mander in his Het Leven der Schilders. He studied his art under Jan Schoorel; and after making a professional visit to Italy he commenced to paint portraits in the style of Hans Holbein. His rise to eminence was rapid. In 1552 he was invited to Madrid by the emperor Charles V. to execute a likeness of Prince Philip. Two years afterwards he was in London painting the portrait of Queen Mary. For this picture an annual salary and, as some suppose, the honour of knighthood were conferred upon him. On the death of Mary in 1558 Moro returned to Spain, and lived there for two years in great honour with Philip II., executing, in addition to portraits, several copies after Titian. His death took place at Antwerp about 1575. Among his figure-pictures Van Mander specifies the "Circumcision of Christ," executed for Antwerp Cathedral, as one of the most notable. His portraits are full of individuality, and characterized by firm and solid rendering of flesh. Several admirable examples are preserved in Madrid; among the rest the portrait of Queen Mary of England, which has been excellently etched by Milius ( L'Art, Dec. 8, 1878). "Moro's style," says Stanley in his Dutch and Flemish Painters, " so much resembles that of Holbein as to frequently create a doubt to which of them a portrait is to be attributed; but he is not so clear and delicate in his colouring (perhaps from having painted so much in Spain) as that master."