| 14 December 1560 |
Birth of Nicolaas Rockox in Antwerp. |
| 1566 |
Calvinist iconoclasts destroy church interiors. |
| 1570 |
Death of Adriaan Rockox, Nicolaas’s father. |
| 1576 |
‘The Spanish Fury’: Spanish troops plunder Antwerp. |
| 1577 |
Rubens is born in Siegen, Germany. |
| 1579 |
Union of Utrecht is declared. Antwerp becomes a Calvinist city. |
| 11 November 1579 |
Frans Snijders is baptised in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. |
| 1584 |
Rockox joins the Antwerp civic guard. |
| 1585 |
The Fall of Antwerp. The city is captured on 27 August by the Spanish general Alexander Farnese, the duke of Parma. |
| 5 September 1589 |
Nicolaas Rockox marries his neighbour Adriana Perez. |
| 1593 |
Frans Snijders is apprenticed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger and later to Hendrik van Balen. |
| 1599 |
The ‘Joyous Entry’ of Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella. |
| 1599 |
Rockox is knighted by Albert and Isabella. |
| 1600-1608 |
Rubens spends period in Italy. |
| 1602 |
Frans Snijders enrols as a free master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. |
| 1603 |
Rockox is appointed burgomaster for external affairs for the first time. |
| 1609 |
Frans Snijders returns from Italy. We do not know when he first travelled there. |
| 1609 |
The Twelve Year Truce is declared. |
| 23 Oktober 1611 |
Frans Snijders marries Margriete de Vos. The young couple move into number 17 Korte Gasthuisstraat. |
| 1615 |
Albert and Isabella visit Antwerp. Nicholas Rockox is the burgomaster for external affairs at the time. |
| 1619 |
Adriana Perez dies and is buried in the Minorite church in Antwerp. |
| 1619 |
Snijders is admitted to the Romanists’ Guild – a select company of well-to-do individuals, the members of which had visited Rome. |
| 24 December 1620 |
Frans Snijders and Margriete de Vos purchase the house ‘De Fortuyne’ in Antwerp’s Keizerstraat, next door to Nicolaas Rockox. They move into the building in 1622. |
| 1621 |
End of the Twelve Year Truce Death of Archduke Albert. |
| 1625 |
Rockox becomes burgomaster for external affairs for the last time. |
| 1635 |
Gevartius, Rubens and Rockox jointly organise the ‘Joyous Entry’ of Cardinal Infante Ferdinand of Austria. |
| 1636-1638 |
Led by Rubens, Snijders collaborates with other artists (including Cornelis de Vos) on the mythological decoration of the Torre de la Parada hunting lodge near Madrid, owned by King Philip IV of Spain. Snijders receives a parallel commission for 60 animal paintings. Further commissions follow for the Alcázar palace and clients in the Northern Netherlands. |
| 30 May 1640 |
Rubens dies and is buried in the Church of St James. |
| 12 December 1640 |
Rockox dies and is buried in the Minorite church. |
| 2 September 1647 |
Margriete de Vos dies and is buried in the Minorite church. |
| 19 August 1657 |
Frans Snijders dies and is buried in the Minorite church. |
