Attributed to Maarten van Heemskerck

Attributed to Maarten van Heemskerck is the label a museum uses when it believes a painting is his but cannot prove it with a signature, a contract or a record of payment. In his case the doubt comes easily. Heemskerck ran a workshop in Haarlem, and he also drew a great many designs for prints, which engravers in Haarlem and publishers in Antwerp turned into sheets sold far beyond the Netherlands. His crowded scenes and heavily muscled figures could therefore be borrowed by painters who never set foot in his studio. When a panel shows that manner and no document ties it to him, the judgement rests on style alone, and the museum keeps the word attributed in front of his name.