AERTSEN, PETER. - Painter, born in Amsterdam in 1507 or 1508, died there in 1575. He worked in Antwerp from 1535 to 1555; he was one of the founders of still-life painting, which he introduced with vigorous naturalism and without too many scruples, along with genre figures, even into his religious paintings, which demonstrate knowledge of the Italian Renaissance. Characteristic works include two Calvary scenes (1552, Berlin and Balen), an Ecce Homo (Brussels, Devolder), and Christ and the Adulteress (1559, Frankfurt am Main, Staedel Museum, and an autograph replica in St. Petersburg, private collection).
BIBL.: J. Sievers, P. A., Leipzig 1908; M. J. Friedländer, Die altdeutschen Malerei, XIII, Leiden 1936, pp. 107-17 and 107-18.