Birthplace and date remark: Gonzales was baptized in the St. Joriskerk on December 8, 1614 (Th. van Lerius 1880, p 134) Still, there is uncertainty about his birth year because the baptist in 1614 was called Gonzala Coques: this may be an older sister of the painter, although Van Lerius showed conclusively that names ending on 'a' also occur for men in Antwerp. Underneath his engraved portrait in De Bie's Gulden Schilderkabinet (1662) his year of birth is 1618. The latter is unlikely, since Coques became an apprentice in 1626: that is far more likely at age 12 than at 8. For a more detailed discussion, see: Martin 1970. For the year of birth see also: Liskens-Pruss 2002, p. 23-26. She finds the date 1614, found by Van Lerius, the most likely. Houbraken assumed he was born in 1618.