(b Osnabrück; d London, Jan–Feb 1558). German painter, active in England. He probably moved to England c. 1545, and three signed and dated works by him survive. Of these, probably the earliest is a rather stiff and archaic portrait of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (London, N.P.G.) in the style of Holbein, signed top right Gerlacus flicus Germanus faciebat and dated Anno etatj 57 Julij 20; the year does not appear but would be 1545 or 1546. Behind the sitter is a leaded window, with a looped red curtain to the right; Cranmer holds St Paul’s Epistles and sits at a table covered with a Turkey carpet on which are other books and a paper. A number of related portraits of Cranmer use the same pattern. More fluent and distinguished is Flicke’s Portrait of an Unknown Nobleman, traditionally identified as William, Lord Grey of Wilton (Edinburgh, N.G.), which is signed and dated 1547, the year in which Grey was knighted. The subject stands in the open air against a blue sky, a spray of blue columbines beside his right arm. Hervey, whose identification of the subject is persuasive, noted that this flower figures conspicuously as part of Grey’s crest, described in the bill for his funeral. Hervey also attributed to Flicke a similar, undated, portrait of Sir Peter Carew (Edinburgh, N.G., on loan to London, Tower); like Grey, the subject wears a slit buff jerkin, white doublet and black plumed cap.

• Flicke, Gerlach
  • Lumley, John