Haarlem Mannerists
Karel van Mander is considered the founder of the Haarlem drawing academy, although it is very unclear what this involved at this period - it was certainly not a regular school offering classes, probably an informal discussion group which may have sat for life-drawing together. He was considered an established expert when he arrived in Haarlem.
He had an important effect on Dutch art when in 1585 he showed his friend Hendrick Goltzius drawings he had by Bartholomeus Spranger, then the leading artist of Northern Mannerism, who was based in Prague as Rudolf's court artist. These had a galvanising effect on Goltzius whose style was immediately affected by them, and also made engravings of them which were important in disseminating Mannerist style. Van Mander, Goltzius and Cornelis van Haarlem, became known as the "Haarlem Mannerists" and artists from other towns joined the movement.
He received budding artists in his home for evenings of communal drawing and study of classical mythology. After the iconoclasm, religious themes had gone out of fashion and mythology gained popularity, but few painters could afford a trip to Italy as van Mander had done. His purpose was to educate young painters in the proper artistic techniques; he was a firm believer in the hierarchy of genres. It was his firm belief that only through proper study of existing works that true-to-life historical allegories could be achieved.
His own works included mannerist mythological subjects, but also portraits and genre paintings influenced by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and looking forward to the next century, such as the Kermis in the Hermitage Museum. Relatively few paintings by him survive.
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