(b Mechelen, 1523; d Antwerp, between 1589 and 6 Feb 1591). Painter, draughtsman and engraver, brother of (1) Willem van den Broeck. His date of birth can be deduced from his age of 34 years inscribed on a Self-portrait dated 1557 and his own declaration of being 60 years old on 4 August 1584. Probably trained by his father, he first worked in his native town, where he still lived in 1557, although he had been enlisted as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke in 1555-6. On 27 July 1558 he rented a house in Antwerp, where he became a citizen in 1559. In 1561 he bought a piece of land in the Gasthuisbeemden, in a newly developed quarter of Antwerp where shortly afterwards Frans Floris and Hieronymus Cock became his neighbours. On his arrival in Antwerp, Crispin probably went to work in the studio of Floris, whose trusted collaborator he remained until the master's death in 1570. According to van Mander, an altarpiece for the Grand-Prior of Spain left incomplete at the time of Floris's death was completed by Crispin van den Broeck and Frans Pourbus the elder.

Part of the Broeck, van den family

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.