LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OF THE. 



dife," in large folio ; " Adam and Eve eating of the for- 

 bidden Fruit ;" " The grand Fellival of the Jews, after fix 

 Years Bondage ;" "The King Balac, communing with the 

 Prophet Balaam ;" " The Prophet Jeremiah," in a land- 

 fcape; " The Vifion of Ezekicl;" " David .and Goliah ;" 

 and " Abij^ail meeting David ;" both with landfcape back- 

 grounds ; " Solomon and the Queen of Sheba :' ' " Solomon 

 adoring the Idols ;" " The Dream of Nebuchadnezzar ;" 

 " Daniel in the Lion's Den ;" " Sufannah and the Elders;" 

 " Sufannah judiiicd;" " Two old Men iloned to Death ;" 

 " The Nativity of our Saviour announced, to the Shep. 

 herds ;" " The Adoration of the Eaftern Kings ;" " A 

 Repofe during the Fhght into Egypt ;" " The Slaughter 

 of the Innocents ;" " St. John preaching in the Defart ;" 

 " Our Saviour preaching on the Mount ;" " The Centurion 

 imploring the Help of Jefus Chrill ;" " The Entry of Chria 

 into Jerufalem ;" " Our Saviour on his way to Mount Cal- 

 vary ;" " The Crucifixion ;" '■ The Refurreftion ;" " St. 

 Paul preaching ;" " St. Hubert perceiving a Crucifi.x be- 

 tween the Horns of a Stag ;" '< Orpheus charming the Ani- 

 mals with his Lyre." Peafants, with their children, regaling; 

 a landfcape, into which is introduced lions, tygers, and 

 ftags ; a large company of Spaniards in a foreft ; all thefe 

 are of large foho fize ; a fet of fix prints, in odlavo, for 

 goldfmiths, from fables ; twelve plates of animals for a 

 book of quadrupeds ; and two fets of thirteen each, of 

 birds and filhcs. 



Subjeds from various Majlers. — " St. John preaching in 

 the Wildeinefs," from Lucas of Leyden ; " A Miracle per- 

 formed at the Tomb of St. James," a Spanifh apoftle, from 

 the fame painter ; " The Golden Age," from Abr. Bloe- 

 mart; this is confideredas his fined print, and was admirably 

 copied in a fmall circle by Theodore de Brye ; " Abraham 

 facrificing Ifaac," after Giles Coninxlo ; " The Predic- 

 tions of the Prophet Ifaiah ;" " The Judgment of Midas," 

 a fine landfcape, with figures, all from the fame painter ; a 

 village fair, from Dav. Vinckenbooms ; a landfcape, with 

 a caftle ; a view of a garden, with buildings, and figures 

 dancing, both from the fame painter ; a flag hunt, after 

 John Breughel ; a fine landfcape, into which is introduced 

 the fibjedl of " Mofes defending the Daughters of Jethro," 

 after Hans Bol. ; " St. Cecilia," accompanied by other 

 faints, copied, with fnme alteration, from Raphael; "The 

 Four Seafons," from M. de Vos ; and an armed knight 

 on horfeback, preceded by an allegorical figure on horfe- 

 back, and follo.vedby the devil on fjot, copied from what 

 is commonly termed " The Worldly Man" of Albert Du- 

 rer; all are of folio dimenfions. 



The family of the Sadelcrs make a very confiderable 

 figure in the annals of engraving : yet are they, unlefs we 

 fhould except Giles, lefs illuilrious by the charatter of th..'ir 

 works as engravings, than vrorthy of notice on {iccount of 

 their number, fubjefts, and the period at which they were 

 performed. 



Hans or John Sadeler was born at Bruflela, A.D. 1550. 

 His father is believed to have been an armourer, or work- 

 man in iron and Heel ; for the firll employment that is known 

 to have been exercifed by John, w.is to engrave ornaments, 

 &;c. upon thofe metals, in order to their being inlaid with 

 the precious metals. Hence Florence le Conite terms him 

 a dtimafqu'meiir of iron ; a word which probably, at that 

 time, was the proper technical denomination oi that parti- 

 cular branch of the armourer's profi-fiion, and which is per- 

 haps derived from Damafcus, where arms have been fabri- 

 cated with fimilar ornaments from a very early period. 



It appears, however, that our artill did not confine him- 

 felf to the fcroU-work and heraldic ornaments, which were 



prevalent at the time, but applied himfclf with requifite di- 

 ligence, at an early period of life, to the (ludy of the human 

 figure, of which he evinced an accurate knowledge ; though, 

 in confequence of early tuition, and the Flemifli and Ger- 

 man examples which had been placed before him for imita- 

 tion, he drew in a (liff and mannered (lyle. 



From thefe early {hackles, lunvevcr, which, till Rubens 

 appeared, Flanders \inwittingly forged for all her fons, 

 Sad'.-ler in a great meafure emancipated himfelf, when he 

 came to ilrengthen his faculties by breathing the purer at- 

 mofphere of art that circulated in Italy. 



He did not at once travel from Brufills to Italy, but 

 publifhed fevcral of his earlier engravings at Antwerp ; from 

 whence, in the year 1588, he went to Frankfort, and con- 

 tinued to travel over ^reat part of Germany, in order to 

 obtain inftruftion from the bed mafters who were then living 

 in that country. At Munich he remained a few years, 

 where his merit being made known to the duke of Bavaria, 

 he was very gracioufiy received ; and that nobleman made 

 him a prefent of a chain of gold. From Munich he went to 

 Verona ; from thence to Venice, and afterwards to Rome ; 

 bnt not meeting vvitli the encouragement he expefted from 

 the pope, he returned to Venice, where he eltablifhed him- 

 felf, and died in that city of a fever, in the year 1600. It 

 is uncertain from whom he firft learned the art of engraving ; 

 but it appears that he availed himfelf of tlie inllruftions of a 

 variety of mafters. His earliell produdtions have much of 

 that iliffnefs, not only in drawing, but in point of manual 

 execution, which eclipfes the merit of the old engravings of 

 the German fchool. It is true, that after he refided in 

 Italy, he made a confiderable improvement in his ftyle of 

 engraving, efpecially in the landfcape parts of his plates ; 

 but he never entirely divellcd himfelf of the habit he at firft 

 acquired. He worked with the graver only, in a clear 

 neat ftyle ; but his plates were never highly finifhed. We 

 fee in them, however, the hand of a very able artift, much 

 correftncfs of drawing, and great exprefllon. His en- 

 gravings are exceedingly numerous ; and though a complete 

 colleftion of them is rarely to be feen, detached prints and 

 fets of prints are by no means uncommon. They are ulually 

 marked with his initials combined in a cypher, for which 

 fee Plale II. of tiiofe ufed by the engravers of the Nether- 

 lands. The following are thofe which are held in moil 

 eftimation. 



Portraits. — Orlando Laffus, mailer of the chapel of 

 William, duke of Bavaria, in 8vo. ; Sigtfmond Feyerabend, 

 a famous printer of Frankfort-on-the-Manie, in 410. ; 

 George Hoefnagle, an artift of Antwerp, and one of the 

 coadjutors of Ortelius the geographer, an engraving of 

 merit, in 410. ; her royal highnets Mary de Medicis, queen 

 of France and Navarre ; Charle.", prince of Sweden and 

 duke of Sudermania; Chrillopher, baron of Teuffenpach, 

 from J. ab. Ach., all in 4to. ; a three-quarter portrait of 

 Herdefianus, a celebrated juris coniuke, with twelve Latin 

 verfes, in folio ; a profile of Martin Luther, in folio ; Otho 

 Henry, count of Schwarzenberg, and counfellor of William 

 of Bavaria, fitting at a table, in large foiio ; an hiltoncal 

 portrait of Clement VIII., in an oval ; and St. John Capif- 

 tranus, a monk of the order of St. Francis, both of folio 

 fize. 



Various Sets. — " The Creation of the World," cnm- 

 meni ing with the forming of the fun and moon, and ending 

 with the exile of Adam and Eve from Paradife, in a fet of 

 eight, after Crifpin Vanden Broeck ; a fet of fix, con- 

 taining the hillory of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, 

 after Michael Coxie ; fixteen fubjects from the book of 

 Genefis, with Latin verfes, from Martin de Vos ; " The 



Life 



