GERMAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



Jnended liim to Rubens, that he was engaged by that great 

 niafter to engrav^- a confider.ible number of his compoiUiona, 

 and it is no linall praifc to add that he fucceedcd to the per- 

 feft fatisfaftion of the painter. 



After the death of Rubens, Jegher re-purchafed mod of 

 thefe engravings, and publiflied them on his own account. 

 Collc<ftors Ihould therefore bear in mind, that thofe inipref- 

 fions, from which the name of Rubens as tlie publiflier is 

 taken away, and that of Jegher fubftituted, are of tlie fecond 

 edition, and confequently of inferior vahie to the firll. 



There is a degree of freedom and vigour in the flyle of 

 Jegher that is perfottly homogeneous with tliat of Rubens ; 

 his hatchings are broad and powerful, and the imitation of 



Morell, as is wtll known, 

 fruits, flowers, and infefts, 



was a dillinguifiicd painter of 

 and under hi:i inllrudion out 



as a painter and nafu-' 

 file afternardj added 



young artill foon didinguifhcd htrfelf 

 ral phih)fopher, to which attainments 

 tlie art of etching. 



In the year 1665 (Ite married Jean Andre Graf, a merito- 

 rious painter of Nuremberg, who ftudied in the fchool of 

 Mon-ll. In 1679 fhc publifl.ed the firft volume of her 

 " Hillolie des Infeftes dcl'Europe deflines d'aprc> nature, 

 et expliques par Marie-Sybillc Merian ; oil Ton traite de la 

 generation et des differentes metamorpholes des infeifies ct del 

 plantes dont ils fe nouriSent ;" and in 1683, (he pnblifiie<l 

 the fecond volume of the fame work, in the execution of 



the crofs hatchings is fo well expreffed, that his bell prints which fhc paidattentioa totheengrdvings,a3wcll asthedefigr.g. 



very much refemble drawings made with the pen and ink 

 He drew with mallcrly correftnefs ; the extremities of his 

 figures are well marked ; and his heads, though flight, are 

 full of expreifion. 



His beft, and by far the greater of Jcgher's productions, 

 are after Rubens, but he has engraved a Crucifixion after F. 

 Franck, which is dated 1637, and fome few more from other 

 mailers. 



' The following are after P. P. Rubens ; " Sufannah furprif- 

 ed by the Elders." "A Repofe in Egypt,'' both in large 

 folio. Some of the latter are printed in chiarofcuro, (/". e. 

 with an additional block or two to add the demitints,) and 

 a.-e now become fcarce. " The infant Chrift and St. John 

 playing with a Lamb." " The Coronation of the Virgin 

 Mary,'' and "The Temptation of Chriil in the Defart,'' 

 all middling-fized folios. " Hercules deilroying Envy and 

 Difcord," is from the cieling at Whitehall. " The Conver- 

 fation of Lovers," is a very large garden-fcene, engraved on 

 •two blocks. " A drunken Sileuus fupported by Satyrs," is 

 of the upright for.^^, and a very fine compoiition of the mailer, 

 which was alio engraven on copper by Bolfwert. 



Matthew Merian, the elder, was born at Balle in the year 

 1 593. His tlril ftudics were under the direftion of Theodore 

 Meyer, who indrufted him in drawing. He afterwards be- 

 came the ditciple of Theodore de Bne. He was a man of 

 talent, and his principal engravings are landfcapes, which he 

 etched in a flight free ftyle, and linllhed with the graver. 

 His views have much of that rare but valuable topographi- 

 cal quality, the appearance of having been really copied from 

 tlie places of which they bear the names, and which qua- 

 lity Merian had the fl<ill and the honour of imparting to his 

 difciple Wenceflaus Hollar, of whom we h;;ve given an ac- 

 count in our progrefs of English engraving, but whofe 

 monograms will be found in our third plate of thofe of the 

 German ffhool. 



Merian married the daughter of his tutor de Brie, hy 

 1n-hom he had ilTue : he died in the year 1657, aged j8, at 

 Frankfort, or, according to fome of his biographers, at 

 Schwalbach. 



His works, according to Le Compte, amount to upwards 

 cf five hundred plates. They are well known, and there is 

 not fo much difparity in their merits as to make a felettion 

 here either eafy or iifccfTary. His marks and monogiams are 

 five in number, as will be found in oar third plate. 



Of Matthew Merian the younger, who was for a (hort 

 time in London, we have mad 

 place. 



His daughter, Maria Sybilla Merian, was a much more 

 Jiftinguiflied charafter. She was born at Frankfort on the 

 Maine in the year 1647. At the age of four years flie loll 

 Iver father, which in moll cafes is a great misfortune, but not 

 fo here, for her mother found in her fecond hulband, Jacques 

 Morel], a kind and indulgent protector, who foftered the in- 

 fant genii^ of Maria. 



Ilight mention in a former 



it being the firll work wherein is difplayed the minutis which 

 is fo important in the eye of the comioidcHr, and Ihe managed 

 the etching needle with the dexterity Ihe had before cTinced 

 in the management of her pencil. 



In the courfe of the next year, {he returned to Frankfort 

 with her family, and, from a miltalcen zeal in religion, fepa- 

 rated from her hufnand ; retired with her mother and two 

 daughters to Well Frielland, and became a member of th.- 

 fociety of Lahadilles. The fraternal fociety of Labadiltcs, 

 (who called themfelves brothers and fillers) had then a.l'emblcU- 

 under Peter Yrond, and their head-quarters were the caftle 

 of Den Bofch, fituated between Franeker and Levardin, of 

 which the polTelTor's name waj Sonimerdyck. Here Ihe re- 

 mained a confiderabletiine, and Iiere fhe had opportunity to 

 infpeftatleifure a fine collection of the infedls pf America, 

 ©f whict flie made very exaCl drawings, and from hence her 

 thirll after profeffional knowledge led her to make occafionaJ 

 excurfions to Amilerdam and other parts of Holland, which 

 at that time abounded with cabinets both of pictures and 

 natm-al hi (lory. 



Her enthufiafm now took a n 'w turn, and coinciding witk 

 the willies of the Dutch naturalilts, fhe was induced, m the 

 year 1699, to undertake a voyage to Surinam. On her arri- 

 val, after an agreeable palTage, a wide field opened to her 

 profeflional ambition. She painted the infeAs and reptilei 

 of the country on vellum, and examined with philofophical 

 care their various habits and changes : but the heat of the 

 climate, and her intenfe application, having injured her health, 

 it became ncceffary for her to return to Europe in the fol- 

 lowing year. 



She brought home an ample coUeilion, not only of draw- 

 ings, but of (hells, dried infefts, &c. She now fettled at 

 Amilerdam, and immediately fet about publifliing the fruits 

 of a voyage, than which none had ever been performed more 

 truly interelling to the naturalifts of Europe. 



Of the lixty large folio plates contained in her " Meta- 

 morphofes Infeetorum Snrinamenfium, ixc." feveral wereex- 

 ecute<l by herlelf, and Ihe alfo fupplied the defcriptious. It 

 was pubhihed at Amilerdam in the year 1 705. 



J-i the f.-cond edition^ which was publiflied by the phvfi- 

 cian Jean Marret, in the French language, more plates and 

 explanations were added by tte author, wh« confecrated the 

 remainder of her days to delineations and refearches of ilus 

 nature. 



Too far advanced in lile to venture on a fecond vovagr, 

 yet knowing that much had been left unaccomplilhed at Suri- 

 nam, Maria Sybille now formed the defign of fending thither 

 hereldell daughter, uho had accompanied and aflittid her in 

 her former voy:ige. Jeanne Ilclene cheertully undertook 

 the commiHion, landed at Surinam, painted with hei-eJilarjr 

 ikill all the reniaining lub'nCts of iiaturnl Ir.llory that (he 

 could find iutereiUug in the country, added her remarks, and 

 tranlmitted them to AniiterJani ; but death had now inter- 

 poled to prevent this conlu;ViHiiltoii of the plealures of M&ria 

 A. a 2 .Srbille. 



