Pieter Gillis

Metsys’s 1517 portrait of Pieter Gillis (Petrus Aegidius) at Longford Castle is the more famous version of the Antwerp humanist’s likeness, painted as one half of the celebrated diptych that Gillis and Erasmus sent as a gift to their mutual friend Thomas More in England. This is one of the most historically significant portraits of the Northern Renaissance, documenting the friendship that united the greatest humanist minds across national boundaries.

Gillis is shown at his desk with books and letters, the still-life elements identifying him as a man of learning and correspondence. The background shelf of books is painted with the trompe-l’oeil precision that was a Netherlandish specialty.