MABUSE, Ian, Flemish painter: b. Mauberge, Hainault, in 1472; d. Antwerp, 1 Oct. 1552. His real name was Jean Gossart (or Gossaert). When he became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke at Antwerp in 1503, he signed the register as Jennyn van Henegouwe (John of Hainault). He signed his early pictures Jennyn Gossart and those of his middle and last period Joannes Malbodius (John of Mauberge). In the register of the Guild of Our Lady at Middleburg he is entered as Jan de Wade (John the Walloon). It is not known from whom he learned his art, but at Ant werp he fell under the influence of Quentin Matoys (15th century). In 1508 Mabuse, as he is familiarly known, went to Rome with his patron, the magnificent Philip of Burgundy, visiting Verona and Florence on the way. He stayed in Rome a year and returned to the court of Burgundy in November 1509. He :hen was employed at the Duke of Burgundy's castle of Zuytburg, painting for Philip. After Philip's death in 1524, he entered the service of Adolphus of Burgundy. When Christian II of Denmark visited the Low Countries he asked Mabuse to paint his dwarfs ani in 1528 he requested the artist to design the tomb for his queen, Isabella, in the abbey of Saint Pierre, near Ghent. Mabuse also painted the children of Christian II — John, Dorothy and Christine, which came into the collection of Henry VIII of England. Mabuse also d and erected the tomb of Philip of Burgundy in the church of Wyck. Van Mander's biography accuses him of habitual drunkenness, but the great works produced by him, as well as their num ber, prove that he was a hard-working and painstaking artist, perfectly in command of his powers. In 1527 he accompanied Lucas of Leyden on a pleasure trip to Ghent, Mechlin and Antwerp. Mabuse seems to have been the first of the Netherland painters to go o Italy. He brought back a new style; and from his time to that of Rubens and Van Dyck it was considered the proper thing for all Flemish painters to go to Italy.
The best specimen of his early and purely Netherland is the famous (Adoration of the Magi,' long at Castle Howard, England, and purchased by the National Gallery, London, in 1911 for the extraordinary sum of $192,000. This great picture was painted in 1500 for the abbey of Grammont in eastern Flanders and was sold by the monks in 1605 to the Archduke Ferdinand, who placed it in a private chapel in Brussels. In the 18th century Charles of Lor
raine acquired it and at his death in 1775 the picture passed to England. The signature of Jan Gossart appears in golden letters on the band of the crown on the negro king. In this great work there are 30 figures with an archi tectural background, much in the style of Mem ling and Roger van der Weyden.
The National Gallery (London) contains five other precious works by Mabuse, including the portrait of Jacqueline of Burgundy; por trait of a man holding his gloves- and the portrait of a man with a rosary. Hampton Court has the 'Three Children of Christian II, King of Denmark' ;
and Eve in Para dise); a portrait of
(Eleanor of Austria' ; and a 'Holy Family.) The Louvre has a magnificent portrait of Jean Carondelet, chancellor of Flanders; a (Virgin and Child' ; a portrait of
and (a man and his wife.' 'Saint Luke painting the Blessed Vir gin and Child' formerly in the cathedral of Mechlin but now in that of Prague, painted in 1515, is a fine example of Italianized Nether land art. Another celebrated picture was a large triptych,
Descent of the Cross,' painted for Maximilian of Burgundy for the monastery of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas at Middleburg, which perished when that building was burned in 1568. Diirer saw it in 1520 and admired it extremely, although he said "the composition was not as good as the execution?' Mabuse excelled in portraiture. Occasionally Mabuse turned to mythological subjects, such as 'Neptune and Amphitrite' (1516) in the Berlin Museum. His architecture is beautifully drawn and his painting of rich materials — damasks, embroideries and tapestries — is superb. Con sult Segard, Achille, 'Mabuse, Jan) (in Les Arts, No. 123, p. 1, with illustrations including 'Adoration of the Magi,' Paris 1912) ; Weisz, Ernst,
MAC, or MC, a Gaelic 'prefix, as Mac Gregor, MacDonald, McKinley, etc. It corre sponds with son in surnames of Teutonic origin, Fitz in those of Romance origin, or Ap or Ab in Welsh surnames.