Michiel Coxie the Elder, Michiel Coxcie the Elder or Michiel van Coxcie, Latinised name Coxius (1499 – 3 March 1592), was a Flemish painter of altarpieces and portraits, a draughtsman and a designer of stained-glass windows, tapestries and prints. He worked for patrons in the principal cities of Flanders. He became the court painter to successively Emperor Charles V and King Philip II of Spain. Highly respected by his contemporaries, Coxie was given the nickname the Flemish Raphael as some of his contemporaries regarded him as being on an equal level as the Italian master. This also reflected his contemporaries' appreciation that his study of classical Antiquity and the art of Renaissance masters like Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci during his 10-year residence in Italy had left an important mark on his style. His innovative style and bold compositions were in the centuries after his death an inspiration to Flemish artists including Peter Paul Rubens. He was thus an important artistic link between the artists of early Netherlandish painting and the Flemish Baroque. Coxie was also a copyist and produced a well-known copy of the Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers as well as a Descent from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden. Life Early life and training No records survive about the early life and training of Michiel Coxie. His year of birth has been determined to be 1499 through deduction from later sources. The place of his birth also remains uncertain. It is generally assumed that he was born in Mechelen as this was the first place he appears to have returned to after his long-term residence in Italy. Some art historians have suggested that his place of birth was in the region around Hasselt, then in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. The master or masters from whom he received his artistic training are not documented. Most known facts and statements of later biographers point to a training in the workshop of the Brussels master Bernard van Orley. It is known that during his stay in Rome, Coxie enjoyed the favor of the Flemish Cardinal Willem van Enckevoirt who may have been Bernard van Orley's patron in Rome assuming van Orley really took the trip to Rome as some sources have suggested. It has been speculated that this relationship with the Cardinal proves that van Orley recommended his pupil to his former patron. Michiel Coxie was