Joest (VAN KALKAR.), JAN, otherwise JAN JOOST VAN CALCKER, Dutch painter, b. at Calcker, or Calcar, about 1460; d. at Haarlem in 1519. This painter was practically unknown until 1874, when Canon Wolff and Dr. Eisenmann established his identity. Joest’s great work, executed between 1505 and 1508, and representing scenes from the life of Christ, painted on the wings of the high altar in the church of St. Nicholas at Calcker, had been familiar to critics, but not so the painter. Canon Wolff found many references to him in the archives of his native place, and was able to prove the date of the painting of the masterpiece, and the fact that in 1518, Joest was working at Cologne for the important family of Hackeneg. After leaving Cologne he appears to have gone to Italy, and to have visited Genoa and Naples, returning thence to Holland, and settled down at Haarlem, where he executed a painting of St. Willibrod for the church of St. Bavon. In the last edition of Van der Willigen’s work on the painters of Haarlem is the reference to the burial of the artist, there called Jan Joosten, under the date 1519.
There are paintings attributed to Joest at Wesel and Rees, and the “Death of the Virgin” in Munich is believed to be his. He was an artist of very high merit, and has been compared with David and Memlinc, but he more properly belongs to the school of Scorel, and one of the special features of his work is the exquisite transparency of his coloring and the subtle and very delicate modeling of the faces.
GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON