Martinus van der Biest

Marten van der Biest (1535, Antwerp, Belgium — 1587, Amsterdam, Netherlands), also known as "Martinus," was a Dutch-Belgian harpsichord maker, Hans Ruckers (fl.1550—1598) contemporary. There are virtually no biographical sources on his early life. In 1557, Marten joined the Antwerp's city Guild of St Luke (where all artists and craftsmen enrolled) as a harpsichord maker. In June 1575, van der Biest was one of the witnesses at the marriage of Hans Ruckers and Adriana Cnaeps at Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk cathedral in Antwerp. Subsequently, Martinus van der Biest relocated to Holland, appearing as an Amsterdam citizen in the May 1587 archives. His sole extant instrument is an elaborately painted 1580 double virginal, with a smaller "child" ottavino on the right, at Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, Germany, inscribed "MARTINVS VAN DER BIEST M F 1580" and presumably made for an Italian cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520—1589), grandson of Pope Paul III and renowned art collector. Another virginal with the "Martin van der Biest 1584" inscription appears on the anonymous Dutch school 1584 painting An Unknown Music Lover at Kunstmuseum Den Haag.