Akademik

(1516-1570)

   Flemish Mannerist painter from Antwerp who established his workshop in 1540 after his return from a trip to Rome. One of his most important patrons was William "the Silent" of Orange; one of his most notable works is the Fall of the Rebel Angels (1554; Antwerp, Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts), once part of a triptych Floris rendered for the Fencer's Guild of Antwerp. The work presents a confusing mass of nude forms in dramatic movement, characteristic of his style, that recalls Perino del Vaga's Fall of the Giants (c. 1529) in the Palazzo del Principe, Genoa. Floris was also a portraitist. His portrait Falconer's Wife (1558; Caen, Musée des Beaux-Arts) presents a nonidealized heavy-set woman in monumental form, her facial expression revealing her personality. Among Floris' other works are the Judgment of Paris (c. 1548; Kassel, Staatliche Museen), the Banquet of the Gods (1550; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Künsten), and the Head of a Woman (1554; St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum); this last is believed to be a study for a larger composition.