LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OF THE. 



prints, that with the molt (how of reafon have been pre- 

 iumed to be the work of Coster (fee that article) ; but 

 if that artift, or that perfon rather, died in the year 1441, 

 as is reported, how happens it that we hear fo Httle more of 

 letter-prefs engraving in tlie Low Countries till the time of 

 Van Aflen and Peter Coeck, who were neither of them 

 born till toward the clofe of the fifteenth century ? 



A rude print, defigned in a ftiff and Gothic ftyle, and 

 executed in a barbarous talle, was fome years ago preferved 

 in the library of the king of France. It had formerly be- 

 longed to the celebrated abbe Marolles ; was believed by 

 the connoiffeurs of Paris (perhaps with reafon) to be the 

 moll ancient of the Flemifh produftions in this art ; and is 

 infcribed, in the old black letter, " Gheprint t'Antwerpen 

 by my Phillery, de Figur Snyder," i. e. in Enghfh, "Printed 

 at Antwerp by me, Phillery, engraver of figures." 



The fubjeft of this ancient engraving, which appears to 

 be executed on wood, is a female figure fitting with a dog 

 on her lap, near whom are two foldicrs Handing : but if it 

 has been inferred to be the firft, merely becaufe it is among 

 the very rudeft and worll of Flemifh produftions, we can by 

 no means acquielce in the juftnefs of fuch a criterion ; and 

 of Mynheer Phillery, the figur fnyder and printer, nothing 

 further is known. 



If we except the doubtful claims of Phillery, Lucas Ja- 

 cobs of Leyden, Peter Cocck of Alolt, and John Walther 

 of Aflen, who were contemporaneous, were the earliell en- 

 gravers of the Low Countries with whole names and works 

 we are acquainted. The former is believed to have intro- 

 duced into his country the art of engraving on copper, and 

 the method of printing v>'ith the rolUng-prefs ; and the two 

 latter, that of engraving on wood, or fo as to deliver im- 

 preflions from the furface of the work, and with the letter- 

 prefs ; and all, though not the proclaimed and perfonal 

 difciples, were evidently the ftudents and imitators, of 

 Wolgemuth, Schoen, and Durer. The internal evidence 

 ariCng from comparing their ilyles of art, with thofe of the 

 early German mafters, is at lead as fatisfaftory a proof of 

 fuch a fail, as could have been derived from the teilimony of 

 contemporary writers : for mere writers upon art, partly 

 from want of practical knowledge, and partly from the mif- 

 takes of inadvertency, have not unfrequently recorded 

 errors ; which errors fometimes continue for ages to be re- 

 peated, and to flow on through the uiual literary channels, 

 until they are detedled and dragged afliore by the local 

 knowledge and power of profeflional artifts, or the cul- 

 tivated eye and matured judgment of unafFeft«d connoilTcur- 

 fliip. 



On comparing dates, it appears that the birth of Jacobs 

 was four years pofterior to thofe of Coeck and Walther, 

 though he preceded them in the praftice of engraving. 



Peter Coeck, or Koeck, was born in the year 1490, at 

 Aloft, in Flanders, and died in the fame city A. D. 1550. 

 From Barent Van Orley, of Brufl^els, he obtained fonie in- 

 ftruftions in drawing, after which he travelled to Italy for 

 improvement, where he made very confiderable progrefs in 

 his ftudies, and from whence he made a voyage to Turkey. 



On his return he married, and fettled in his native town, 

 where he enjoyed a fmall penfion from the government ; but 

 his wife dying foon after, he removed to Brufl^els, and engaged 

 to paint for a company of merchants, who had conceived the 

 projeft of eftablifliing a manufaclare of tapellry at Con- 

 Itantiiiople under his direftion. 



During his refidence abroad, he had m'ade drawings of 

 that magnificent city and its fuburbs ; which, on the failure of 



the tapellry fcheme, he cut on feven wooden blocks, divided 

 into as many compartments, which being joined together, 



make a very large, long print, refembling a frieze. On a 

 tablet belonging to the firft block is written in bad French, 

 " The Manners and Cuftoms of the Turks, with the Coun- 

 tries belonging to them, drawn from Nature by Peter Coeck 

 of Aloft, when he was in Turkey, in the year of Jefus 

 Chrift MDXXXIII. He alfo with his own hand executed 

 thefe prints according to the drawings he had made." And 

 upon a tablet in the lall block, in the fame language is in- 

 fcribed, " Mary Verhulft, widow of the faid Peter d' Aloft, 

 who died in the veer I J JO, caufcd thefe figures to be printed 

 under the grace and privilege of his imperial majefty, in the 

 year MCCCCCL 1 1 1 . " The principal fubjeds of thefe block s 

 are, i. The March of the Grand Seignior with his Janifaries. 

 2. The Suite of the Grand Seignior walking. 3. A Turk- 

 ifli Marriage, with the Ornaments and Dances of the 

 Country. 4. Their Funeral Ceremonies, e. Their Re- 

 joicings on the New Moon. 6. Their Repafts. 7. Their 

 feafaring and warlike Cuftoms. 



After Coeck returned to his native country, he married a 

 fecond time, Mary Verhulll, and had a daughter, who af- 

 terwards married his pupil, Peter Breughel the elder. Be- 

 fides many altar and cabinet piftures, executed by Cocck, 

 he tranflated from the Italian the works of Sebaitian Serlio, 

 and Vitruvius ; contributed greatly to the improvement of 

 the architefture of his country ; and was lionoured with the 

 title of firft painter to the emperor Charles V. 



Strutt fays of his engravings, that they contain a vaft 

 number of figures, executed with great care, but not much 

 tafte : but that they are very curious, and were doubtlefs 

 very eftimable at the time they were performed. He ufually 

 marked them with his initials in the form of a monogram, 

 which will be found in our P/ate I. of thole ufed by the en- 

 gravers of the Netherlands. 



John Walther Van Aflen was alfo born in the year 1490, 

 and in his youth flourilhed at Amfterdam, but the events 

 of his life are very obfcure. He engraved on wood with a 

 degree of boldnefs iuperior to that of the age in which he 

 lived : his invention was copious ; and the heads of his 

 figures often exprefiive. His print of " Chrift praying in 

 the Garden" has been particularly admired, and very jullly 

 fo, when regarded with reference to the time and place in 

 which he lived : but the forms of his naked, as might be ex- 

 pefted, are Gothic, meagre, and ill drawn. 



Walther commonly marked his engravings with his ini- 

 tials, combined in a cypher, and as if infcribed on a tablet, 

 as may be feen in our firft plate of the monograms, &c. 

 ufed by the engravers of the Low Countries ; and the bell 

 lift which we are able to form of his works is as follows. 



A fet of fix, of the circular form, about nine inches in 

 diameter, from the Life and Paflion of Chrift. They are 

 dated in the years 15 13 and I5'I4 ; marked with the cypher 

 of the artirt ; and each print is furrounded with a fort of 

 Dutch grotefque ornament. Their fubjefts are, " The 

 Scourging of Chrift ;" " Our Saviour at Prayer in the Gar- 

 den of Olives," wherein his three difciples are reprefented 

 afleep, and the Jews are advancing, conduced by Judas ; 

 (this is the print diftinguifhed above for its fuperior merits ;) 

 " Chrift taken into Cuftody, with St. Peter cutting off 

 tlie Ear of the Servant of Malchus ;" " Chrill bearing 

 his Crofs,'' with the proceflion to mount Calvary ; " The 

 Crucifixion,'' in which St. John and the holy women are 

 introduced at the foot of the crofs ; and " Jefus laid in the 

 Sepulchre,'' attended by Jofeph of Arimathea bearing a 

 vafe of ointment. 



Another fet of feven plates i:i fulio, each confifting of fix 



different fubjetls contained in architedlural compartments, 

 with defcriptions in the Dutch language. The fubjeds are 



partly 



