A Life in Gouda Born in the Dutch city of Gouda around 1520, Cornelis Visscher lived through a period of profound transition in the Low Countries. His identity as a painter is often tied to both Dutch and Flemish traditions, reflecting the fluid borders and shared cultural currents of the sixteenth century. While much of his personal history remains obscured by the passage of centuries, the traces of his hand remain visible in the surviving records of his era. He moved through a world where the craft of painting was as much about technical precision as it was about capturing the social realit…