 His role as a classically educated humanist artist (a "pictor doctus"), reflected in the Latin name by which he is often known, Octavius Vaenius, was influential on the young Rubens, who would take on that role himself.Van Veen was born around 1556 in Leiden, where his father, Cornelis Jansz.van Veen (1519–1591), had been Burgomaster.