Matthys Cock

**Matthys Cock**, also known as Matthijs Wellens de Cock (c. 1509/10 – 1548), was a Flemish landscape painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp. Born into an artistic family, he was the son of the painter Jan Wellens de Cock and the elder brother of the renowned engraver and publisher Hieronymus Cock.

He trained in the family workshop and the Antwerp artistic milieu, becoming a master in the Guild of Saint Luke in 1540, when he presented a pupil. Cock took on several students, including Willem van Santvoort, Jacob Grimmer, and Jan Keynooghe. His work reflects the Antwerp tradition of landscape painting while showing awareness of Italian and Venetian models, particularly the styles of Titian and Domenico Campagnola.

Cock specialized in evocative landscapes, marine scenes, and architectural views, often incorporating biblical or mythological elements. Only one signed painting survives—*Landscape with Castle above a Harbour* (1540)—but he is better known through drawings. His younger brother Hieronymus later engraved thirteen of these landscapes and published them in 1558 as a series titled *Landscapes with Biblical and Mythological Scenes*. Contemporary biographer Karel van Mander praised Cock as the first artist to introduce the “southern manner” of landscape painting to the North and noted his pioneering focus on villages and rural retreats.

Cock’s innovative approach helped shape the development of independent landscape art in the Low Countries. A portrait of him appeared in the 1572 collection *Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris effigies*, accompanied by verses celebrating his landscapes. Though few paintings are securely attributed to him today, his drawings and their printed dissemination ensured his lasting influence on later Netherlandish artists.