KEMPENER, PETER DE (1505-158o), Flemish painter, active chiefly at Seville, where he was known as Pedro Campafia. He was born at Brussels, and was the most distinguished member of a family of painters and tapestry weavers. He went to Italy in 1529. When in Bologna he painted a triumphal arch for festiv ities connected with the coronation of Charles V., and he also painted that emperor in his coronation robes for Cardinal Marin Grimani. He is said to have studied the works of Michelangelo and Raphael, but little is known of him at this period. He then went to Spain, and settled at Seville from about 1537-62. Here he became one of the leading representatives of the Seville school of painting. Fr. Pacheco says of him that besides being a painter he was an architect, a sculptor, a mathematician, an astronomer, and well versed in perspective. His masterpiece is the "Deposi tion from the Cross," painted in 1548 for the church of Santa Cruz and now in the sacristy of the cathedral. In the cathedral
is also the large altarpiece of Mariscal representing "The Presen tation of Christ" on the central panel, with portrait of donors on the two wings. An earlier version of the "Deposition from the Cross," painted in 1547, is now in the museum of Montpellier. Kempener's pictures were deeply felt and appealed to the emo tions. They were greatly admired by Murillo. His portraiture was vivid and noble in conception. A number of pictures attributed to this artist are in Seville, Corboda, Carmona, Eciga and Rota in Spain. The Berlin museum contains a small "Adoration of the Magi," signed by the artist, very fine in colour. Kempener re turned to Brussels in 1563 and was made director of the tapestry works and chief engineer under the duke of Alva. He died in Brussels in 1580. His portrait appears in Fr. Pacheco's Libro de Description de verdadores retratos (Seville, 1876).