also asked to complete the commission for the stained glass windows of the Brussels cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula after Bernard van Orley died in 1541. The early Flemish artist biographer Karel van Mander states in his Schilderboeck of 1604 that Coxie trained with a "Bernard van Brussel" (Bernard from Brussels). It is therefore reasonable to conclude that Coxie was a pupil of Bernard van Orley. Even so, due to the lack of contemporary documentary evidence and surviving youth works by Coxie it is not possible to confirm with certainty that Bernard van Orly was Coxie's master. Foreign travel The earliest documents attesting to Michiel Coxie's life and activities date to the period of his residence in Rome. The Florentine artist and artist's biographer Giorgio Vasari knew Coxie personally. He recounts that Coxie was commissioned by Cardinal Willem van Enckevoirt to paint frescoes in the Santa Maria dell'Anima. Work on the frescoes likely commenced around 1531. As the fresco technique is a painting technique typical of the Italian Renaissance and virtually unknown in contemporary Flemish painting, it must be assumed that by the time Coxie started work on the frescos he had already resided in Italy for a period of time so as to familiarise himself with this technique. It is therefore believed he may have arrived in Italy around 1527 after the sack of Rome by the Spanish king Charles V. It appears that the frescoes in the Santa Maria dell'Anima earned him a reputation in Rome. Not long after completing the frescoes in 1534 he was admitted to the Compagnia di San Luca, Rome's guild of painters and miniaturists. He was one of the first Flemish artists to be inducted into the guild. Coxie stayed in Italy until the end of the 1530s executing many commissions. He was involved in the decoration of the new St. Peter's Basilica but the frescoes that he created are lost due to later renovations to the interior of the church. During his stay in Italy he also provided designs for Italian engravers including for the series of 32 prints on the history of Amor and Psyche which was engraved by Agostino Veneziano and the Master of the Die and published by Antonio Salamanca in Rome between 1530 and 1560. Return to Flanders Coxie travelled in 1539 back to his home country via Milan. While in Milan he made two designs