Coxis, Michael

, an artist, was born at Mechlin in 1497, and received the first notions of painting, when he was very young, from Bernard Van Orlay of Brussels but quitting- his own country, he travelled to Rome, and there had the good fortune to become a disciple of Raphael. He studied and worked under the direction of that superior genius, for several years; and in that school acquired the taste of design and colouring peculiar to his master, as also the power of imitating his exquisite manner so far, as to be qualified to design his own female figures with a great deal of grace and elegance. He had, however, no great invention, nor did he possess a liveliness of imagination; and therefore, when he left Rome, to return to Jns native country, he took care to carry along with him a considerable number of the designs of Raphael, and other eminent masters of Italy, which he did not scruple to make use of afterwards in his own compositions. By that means he gained a temporary reputation, and his pictures were wonderfully admired through the Low Countries; but when Jerom Cock returned from Rome, and brought with him into Flanders, the “School of Athens,” designed by Raphael, and other designs of the most famous Italian artists, they were no sooner made public, than the plagiarism of Coxis was discovered, and his reputation proportionably decreased.

In the church of St. Gudule at Brussels, there is a “Last Supper” painted by Coxis, which is much commended and in the church of Notre Dame, at Antwerp, a St> Sebastian, a Crucifixion, and several portraits, which are fine imitations of nature, and the expression in all of them is excellent. And in the chapel of St. Luke, at Mechlin, he painted two folding-doors, intended to cover an altar-piece, which were so greatly esteemed, that the archduke Matthias purchased them at a very large price, and carried them out of the Low Countries. Towards the close of his life, having become very rich, he built three houses in Malines, which he furnished with his own | performances. His pictures, though from the length of his life, and his incessant application, very numerous, are yet rarely to be met with. He was killed by a fall from a scaffold in 1592, in the town-hall of Antwerp, where he was painting, at the very advanced age of 95 years. ¹