1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Orley, Bernard van

ORLEY, BERNARD VAN (1401–1542), Flemish painter, the son and pupil of the painter Valentyn van Orley, was born at Brussels and completed his art education in Rome in the school of Raphael. He returned to Brussels, where he held an appointment as court painter to Margaret of Austria until 1527, in which year he lost this position and left the city. He only returned to it upon being reinstated by Mary of Hungary in 1532, and died there in 1542. Whilst in his earlier work he continued the tradition of the Van Eyclcs and their followers, he inaugurated a new era in Flemish art by introducing into his native country the Italian manner of the later Renaissance, the style of which he had acquired during his sojourn in Rome. His art marks the passing from the Gothic to the Renaissance period; he is the chief figure in the period of decline which preceded the advent of Rubens. Meticulously careful execution, brilliant colouring, and an almost Umbrian sense of design are the chief characteristics of his work.

Van Orley, together with Michael Cocxie, superintended the execution of van Acht's tapestries for the Vatican, after Raphael's designs, and is himself responsible for some remarkable tapestry designs, such as the panels at Hampton Court. His also are the designs for some of the stained glass windows in the cathedral of Ste Gudule, in Brussels, at the museum of which city are a number of his principal works, notably the triptych representing “The Patience of Job” (1521). Among his finest paintings are a “Trinity " at Lübeck cathedral, a “Pieta” at Brussels, a Madonna at Munich and another at Liverpool.

The National Gallery owns a “Magdalen, reading,” another version of the same subject being at the Dublin National Gallery. Lord Northbrook possesses a portrait of Charles V. by the master.