Frans I Floris

Frans I Floris (born 1519/20, Antwerp [now in Belgium]—died Oct. 1, 1570, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter, draftsman, and etcher who helped spread 16th-century Italian art styles and greatly influenced the Northern Renaissance.

In the 1540s he studied in Rome along with his brother Cornelis II Floris, who became a successful sculptor, engraver, and medalist. Returning to Flanders, Frans quickly took charge of a workshop in Antwerp. He became a phenomenal success thanks to his fashionable Mannerist style, his technical facility, and his ability to organize an efficient picture-producing factory. He painted religious works and Classical allegories in a rather artificial style that borrowed heavily from Michelangelo and the Italian Mannerists in its elegant rhetoric and cool eroticism. Floris trained Marten de Vos, Lucas de Heere, Frans Pourbus the Elder, and many other young painters in his studio, and the Mannerist style that he and his brother evolved remained dominant in Flanders until the end of the 16th century. Floris’s lifestyle and expenditures were extravagant, however, and he died overwhelmed with debts.