present the narrative with actions placed in the foreground. Throughout his artistic career, Cornelisz's painting style changed. At first, he started as a late Gothic craftsman under the influence of the Haarlem school and then ended with a style presented by the painting Saul and the Witch of Endor. In this particular painting, the details are simple, elongated proportions and a looser stroke of paint. Though he excelled as a technical painter, he was not a good leader. He progressed at presenting contemporary trends in subject-matter and style. Cornelisz's symbolism was also conservative as well. He painted mostly sacred themes with traditional iconography in old and new combinations in response to an event, such as the Reformation. Some of his works such as Christ as the Man of Sorrows (1510) were used by biblical humanists and the Amsterdam oligarchy, who wanted to defend Catholic orthodoxy against the claims of early Reformers. The painting represented Roman Catholic beliefs in an easily understood format. Other paintings such as The Nativity (1512) and Saul and the Witch of Endor were visually similar to what the Catholic essays patrons were writing. Later in his life, Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen ran a workshop with pupils, like his son Dirk Jacobsz and Jan van Scorel did after him. In the workshop, his assistants helped him design book illustrations, woodcuts and stained-glass windows. After 1526 Jacob produced only one known painting, Self Portrait (1533). Scholars were led to believe this was the year of his death, but according to Dutch historian I. H van Eeghen there was a seven-year gap between paintings, which was unusual. She suggested it could have been his son that produced the Self Portrait (1533). Some regard him as the last of the Flemish painters not to show an Italian influence. Sources Grove Dictionary of Art Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck on the lives of Dutch painters (1604) References 15th-century births 1533 deaths People from Oostzaan Woodcut designers Early Netherlandish painters