(b Aelst [now Aalst], 14 Aug 1502; d Brussels, 6 Dec 1550). South Netherlandish painter, sculptor, architect and designer of woodcuts, stained glass and tapestries. Son of the Deputy Mayor of the village of Aelst, he was married twice, first to Anna van Dornicke (d 1529), the daughter of the Antwerp painter Jan Mertens, who may have been his teacher; they had two children, Michel van Coecke and Pieter van Coecke II (before 1527–59), the latter of whom became a painter. He later married MAYKEN VERHULST, herself a painter of miniatures and the mother of three children, Pauwel, Katelijne and Maria; they are shown with their parents in Coecke’s Family Portrait (Zurich, Ksthaus). Mayken is credited with having taught the technique of painting in tempera on cloth to her son-in-law, Pieter Bruegel the elder, who married Maria in 1563. (For family tree see BRUEGEL.) Van Mander also stated that Bruegel was Coecke’s apprentice, an allegation no longer universally accepted in view of their substantial stylistic differences. Although the names of other students of Coecke’s, including Willem Key and ‘Colyn van Nieuwcastel’ [Neufchatel], are noted in the records of the Guild of St Luke, there is no mention of Bruegel. Van Mander also reported that Coecke’s own teacher was the Brussels court painter Bernard van Orley. No documents survive to support this hypothesis, although in this case strong stylistic similarities do exist.

• Coecke van Aelst, Pieter
  • Amstel, Jan van
  • Antwerp, §II, 1: Art life and organization, before 1585
  • Antwerp Mannerism
  • Bruegel
  • Bruegel: (1) Pieter Bruegel I, §I, 3: The southern Netherlands, 1555–69
  • Habsburg, §I: (7) Mary, Queen of Hungary
  • assistants
    • Vredeman de Vries, Hans, §1: Life
  • collaboration
    • Jacobsz., Dirck
    • Pannemaker, de
  • groups and movements
    • Romanism
  • publications
    • Belgium, §II, 2: Architecture, c 1400–c 1550
    • Belgium, §III, 2(i): Panel, wall and glass painting, 1400–c 1550
    • Bos, Cornelis
    • Netherlands, the, §II, 3(i): Architecture, c 1500–c 1795: Early Renaissance
  • pupils
    • Bruegel: Family tree
    • Coninxloo, van (i): (2) Gillis van Coninxloo II, §1: Early training in Antwerp and work in Frankenthal, before 1595
    • Key: (1) Willem Key
    • Neufchatel, Nicolas
  • sculpture
    • Belgium, §IV, 3: Sculpture, c 1550–1830
  • stained glass
    • Roundel, stained-glass, §2: Design
  • tapestries
    • Antwerp, §III, 1(i): Centre of tapestry production, before 1585
    • Brussels, §IV, 1(i): Centre of tapestry production, before 1600
    • Tapestry, §II, 2: 1500–1620
    • Woodcut, §II, 3(ii): 16th century: The Netherlands
  • teachers
    • Brussels, §III, 1: Art life and organization, before 1829
    • Mertens, Jan
    • Orley, van (i): (2) Bernard van Orley, §2: Critical reception and posthumous reputation
    • Verhulst, Mayken
  • writings
    • Belgium, §V, 1: Interior decoration, before 1600
    • Serlio, Sebastiano, §1(ii): Writings