Transcription of Inscription [by Lampsonius]:

QUINTINUS MESIUS. ANVER:PIANUS PICTOR. Ante faber fueram Cyclopeus ; ast ubi mecum Ex aequo pictor coepit amare1 procus : Seque graves tuditum tonitrus postferre silenti Peniculo obiecit cauta puella mihi : Pictorem me fecit amor. tudes innuit illud Exiguus, tabulis quae nota certa meis, Sic ubi Vulcanum nato Venus arma rogarat Pictorem e fabro summe Poeta facis.

Translation of Inscription [Lampsonius]:

To Quentin Matsys, painter of Antwerp.

Before I used to be a Cyclopean smith, but when a wooing painter began to love3 on an equal footing with me, and the cautious girl objected to me that she liked the heavy thundering of hammers less than the silent paintbrush, love made me a painter. A tiny hammer, which is the sure note of my paintings, alludes to this. Thus, when Venus had asked Vulcan for arms for her son, you, greatest of poets, made a painter out of a smith.