Cornelis Sachtleven

Reference: S7550
Author Lucas VOSTERMAN
Year: 1645 ca.
Measures: 155 x 235 mm
€200.00

Reference: S7550
Author Lucas VOSTERMAN
Year: 1645 ca.
Measures: 155 x 235 mm
€200.00

Description

Etching and engraving, circa 1645, signed on plate at lower edge.

A fine impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, with margins, very good condition.

From Icones principum, virorum, doctorum, pictorum, chalcographorum by Anton van Dyck, printed for the first time in Antwerp, 1645.

A famous and important work, a real monument of the Flemish engraving art of the XVIII century, containing the biographies and portraits of the famous artists Van Dyck had met and with whom he had worked. 

Following the success of his portrait paintings and in the tradition of Italian and Flemish portrait series, Van Dyck decided to organise a print publication containing portraits of the most prominent men during his lifetime, divided into three categories: princes, politicians and soldiers (16), statesmen and scholars (12), artists and art connoisseurs (52). 

The initial idea could have been that Van Dyck would etch the faces (a process possibly learnt from Vorsterman) while others would finish the plates in engraving. Designs were needed for the plates and several drawings and oil sketches (grisailles, sometimes in different versions) have survived. Van Dyck only etched 17 plates himself, while he commissioned others to complete the set, overseen by Lucas Vorsterman I (especially after Van Dyck settled in England in the Spring of 1632). Although this project was started by Van Dyck around 1630, he never saw it completed. 

The Antwerp publisher Maarten van den Enden may have been involved from the start as eighty early impressions bear Van den Enden's address. They are engraved by Paulus Pontius (30 plates), Lucas Vorsterman I (22), Pieter de Jode II (12), Schelte a Bolswert (7), Robert van Voerst (4), Willem Hondius (2), Willem Jacobsz Delff (1), Cornelis Galle (1), and Nicolaes Lauwers (1). It is known that Van den Enden was in debt to Gillis Hendricx around 1644, the Antwerp publisher who must have obtained Van den Enden's plates which he published in 1645 in the first edition of these plates (containing between 100 and 104 portrait plates). 

Hendricx continued to publish these plates until his death in 1677 when they were auctioned off by the St Luke guild (keeping the Iconography plates together). It is not clear who bought these plates but they re-appeared around 1720 when they were published by Hendrick and Cornelis Verdussen in Antwerp.

Lucas VOSTERMAN (Bommel, 1595 - Anversa, 1675)

Engraver and art dealer. He began to practise as an engraver when he was only 12 years old. He joined Rubens's studio c. 1617-18 and in 1620 became a master. Rubens clearly took on the sensitive young Vorsterman with a view to training him to reproduce his paintings, having realized the potential profits to be made from reproductive engravings of his work. Vorsterman's talent doubtless encouraged Rubens to intensify and guarantee his production of engravings by attaining exclusive licences in France, the northern Netherlands and the southern Spanish Netherlands. It is possible that the young Anthony van Dyck provided drawings after Rubens's paintings for the engravings by Vorsterman (Bellori), although some have been attributed to Vorsterman himself or to the studio of Rubens. Under Rubens' guidance, Vorsterman developed his burin technique in the period 1618-20, using a complex method of building up numerous layers of lines of varying thicknesses in order to do full justice to the colouring in Rubens's paintings. Vorsterman was able to reproduce the expressiveness and nobility of Rubens's figures in a way that virtually no other engraver equalled.

Lucas VOSTERMAN (Bommel, 1595 - Anversa, 1675)

Engraver and art dealer. He began to practise as an engraver when he was only 12 years old. He joined Rubens's studio c. 1617-18 and in 1620 became a master. Rubens clearly took on the sensitive young Vorsterman with a view to training him to reproduce his paintings, having realized the potential profits to be made from reproductive engravings of his work. Vorsterman's talent doubtless encouraged Rubens to intensify and guarantee his production of engravings by attaining exclusive licences in France, the northern Netherlands and the southern Spanish Netherlands. It is possible that the young Anthony van Dyck provided drawings after Rubens's paintings for the engravings by Vorsterman (Bellori), although some have been attributed to Vorsterman himself or to the studio of Rubens. Under Rubens' guidance, Vorsterman developed his burin technique in the period 1618-20, using a complex method of building up numerous layers of lines of varying thicknesses in order to do full justice to the colouring in Rubens's paintings. Vorsterman was able to reproduce the expressiveness and nobility of Rubens's figures in a way that virtually no other engraver equalled.