LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OF THE. 



fmall circle, furrounded by four others, each containing a 

 genius, engraved feme time about the year 15 lo, both of 

 oclavo Cze. 



Portraits The emperor Maximilian I. with his hair 



plaited and wearing a large hat. Lucas painted the por- 

 trait when the emperor vifited Leyden, but did not engrave 

 it till the year 1520, after the death of that prince. The, 

 head is entirely engraved, and the remainder etched, and 

 flightly touched with the graver to give it effeft ; in the 

 back-ground is a little figure holding a fcroll, marked with 

 the letter L. This is the finelt portrait Lucas ever en- 

 graved ; very rare, and of folio fize. A portrait of the 

 artift himfelf, repreft.nted with a hat on, and a mohair 

 doublet trimmed with fur. This portrait was drawn and 

 etched by himfelf when he was but twenty years of age ; 

 it is touched in a light fpirited manner, and iiifcrihed, 

 " Effigies Luck Lcidenfis propria nianu incifa," of 

 quarto lize. Portrait of a young man, half length, dreffed 

 in a cap and feathers, and pointing to a llcnll which he hold^ 

 Hnder his robe. This portrait commonly paiTes for that 

 of Lucas himfelf, but it is very unlike the former. Lucas 

 is always reprefented with (hort plaited hair, aiid this por- 

 trait has very long and curly liair ; it is of quarto fize, and 

 engraved apparently about the year 1525. There is a 

 print attributed to Lucas, of which the fubjeft is " A 

 Family furprifed by Death," but it is too poorly executed 

 to be really his performance ; for in the year 1529, the 

 period when this print was engraven, our artiil was in his 

 meridian. The drawing of it is the beft part, but there is 

 great want of fpirit and correflnefs in the contours. 



Martin Van Veen was born at -the village of Hemflvirk, 

 in Holland, in the year 1498, and till he was eclipfed in the 

 public notice, by the celebrated painter of that name, was 

 called after his native village. He learned the rudiments of 

 drawing from John Lucas, and of painting from John 

 Schoreel, but of the fubfequent progrefs of his ftudies, 

 there are two accounts of an oppofite nature. Strutt fays, 

 that " his early application was attended with little fuccefs, 

 and his genius was clouded by an appearance of natural 

 dulnefs, which feemcd to preclude all hope of his ever at- 

 taining to any reafonable degree of perfection. " Huber, 

 on the contrary, after feeing Strutt's biography of this 

 artift, fays, that he imitated tlie fty'e of his mafter Schoreel 

 fo well, that he became jealous of the i-ifing talents of Van 

 Veen, and expelled him from his fchool ; from which it is 

 clear, that if the fcholar was not a blockhead, the mafter 

 was illiberal. 



Van Veen, however, has obtained praife from Mariette, 

 and from Girard Laireffe, and the eafe and accuracy of his 

 drawing, and firmnefs of his contours, have been repeatedly 

 commended. After quitting the fchool of Schoreel, the 

 fame of Michael Angclo, and the antique fculpture, at- 

 Iratted him to Italy, but after ftudying there for fome 

 time, he returned to FlcUand and fettled at Haerlem, where 

 ie died in the year 1574. 



Neither the engravings nor paintings of Van Veen would 

 now be much admired, being deficient in grace, expreffion, 

 and harmony of chiarofcuro, but among his contemporaries 

 his works cor;.ma..ded rcfpcftful attention. They may be 

 known by th'^ m>mogram which the reader v. ill find in Plate I. 

 cf thofe uicd by the engravers of the Low Countries. 



Amorg his bell prints are " Judah and Taraar," and 

 "The Annunciation," bo'li in 410.; " Commercial In- 

 duftry," in folio, and. " The Wife and Foolilh Virgins," 

 nearly of the fame dia-eniions. The twelve plates of the 

 battles of Charles V ., which have been attributed to him, 



are from the graver of Theodore Coornhaert, but were exe- 

 cuted after his defigns. 



Dietrich, or Theodore Vander Staren, or Von Stern, was 

 born in Holland, fome time about tlie year 1500 ; the 

 time of his death has not been recorded, but it is known 

 that he continued to engrave till 15JO. He is ranked by 

 the French in the clals of little matters, and known by 

 the appellation of the Mailer of the Star, becaufe in his 

 monogram he ufed to place a ftar between his initials, 

 as feen in our lirll plate of thofe ufed by the engravers of the 

 Low Countries. His compofitions prove him to have been 

 a man of talent : he has engraven many landfcapes and fub- 

 jefts from facred hiftory, after his own defigns. He under- 

 ilood tlie human figure tolerably well, but his proportions, 

 like thofe of the Dutch people, are ftiort and heavy ; and 

 he often crowded his back-grounds with architectural orna- 

 ments. To his monogram he ulually added the day of the 

 month on which his plates were publilhed. 



The following are engraved by Vander Staren from his 

 own defigns. " The Miraculous Draught of Fifties,'' datt-d tl 

 1523, in odlavo ; " Chrift. walking on the Sea," a fmall up- 

 right ; " The Temptation of thrift," where the Devil is 

 reprefented with pointed ftiocs ; a fmall upright p'ate. A 

 very fmall plate of a faint kneeling before the Virgin, who 

 holds the infant Chrift, dated 1524; " St. Luke painting 

 the Virgin and Cliihl," dated 1526, of octavo fize. A fo- 

 lio plate of " The Deluge ;'' marked D. Van Stern, fee. 

 1523 : and " The Good Samaritan," engraved AD. 152 J, 

 in oclavo. 



Of Francis Babylone, better knovs^ by the appellation of 

 the Mafter of the Caduceus, we have various accounts, and 

 all ot them involved in more or lefs of uncertainty. He was 

 probably born fome time about the commencement of the 

 fixtecnth century, and, according to Roft and Huber, at Ley- 

 den : he is iuppofed to have iludied in Italy under Marc 

 Antonio, or Gregory Peins. The time of his deceafe is 

 entirely unknown. 



As he neither affixed name, date, nor initials to his very 

 fingular prints, but fimply the fmall caduceus which will be 

 found in our firll plate of the monograms, &c. ufed by the 

 engravers of the Low Countries, his very name is fcarcely 

 fettled, and he has been by fome writers called Ifrael Mar- 

 tin, and affirmed to have been the tutor of Albert Durer, 

 Lucas of Leydcn, and Aldcghever. 



The mafter of the caduceus vi*as quite original in his 

 ftyle of engraving, but it has not been thought worthy of 

 imitation, and his prints are now fought after by the cu- 

 rious merely on account of their great rarity. He worked 

 entirely with the graver: his courlesof lines, which are rarely 

 crolTed, are rather feeble than delicate ; his extremities 

 are poorly marked, and always too large ; his draperies are 

 perplexed with fmall and inelegant folds, and his heads 

 neither charafteriilic nor expreffivc. 



The principal works v.hich have been mentioned as bear- 

 ing this myllerious mark, are as follows. A fmall upright ' 

 plate reprefenting " Apollo and Diana." Another of the 

 fame fize, of three men bound. " A Holy Family," in a 

 fmall fquare plate, half figures : the Virgin is leaning on the 

 ftump of a tree, and the head of Jofeph is feen towards 

 the right hand of the print. Another " Holy Family," a 

 fmall plate lengthways, where tiie Virgin is reprefented 

 feated at the foot of a tree ; the. child is ftanding by her 

 fide; Elizabeth is feated near him; an angel 'is playinjj 

 upon a mufical inftrument ; and Jofeph appears at the rigiit 

 hand of the print. " The Adoration of the Three Kings," 

 a fmall upright plate ; " St. Jerom writing, with a Crucifix 



before 



