LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OF THE. 



James de Gheyn. His engravings are not deftitute of 

 merit, tboujjh inferior to thole of his matter. 



From among them the connoifTeur may with advantage 

 feleft the Portraits of James I. of England, his queen, 

 and the young prince of Wales, on the lame (folio,) 

 plate. A fet of fix fmall prints of " The Life of a 

 Libertine," prefumptively from his own compofitions, 

 " The Marketers with Fowls and Eggs," after Claufe 

 Coeck ; " Envy dripping the Clothes from the Back of a 

 Lady," after the fame author, both in fmall folio. A fati- 

 rical print, wherein certain perfons are bufily employed in 

 walhing an angry jack-afs. A pair, in the firft of which 

 two young libertines are diflipating their wealth, and in the 

 fecond are reduced to want and mifery, in quarto, and after 

 Van Mander. An inllrumental concert, after SbraiTen. A 

 fet of fmall friezes of fea-ports, with (hipping, &c. after C. 

 Nicolai. 



Whether the Nicholas, or Claus, Braen or Breen, who is 

 mentit ned by Balfan, was related to the preceding artilt, we 

 know not. They have by feme writers been confounded 

 together ; but Nicholas appears to have been of the fchool 

 of Saenredam, and was the author of a fet of four ovals from 

 compofitions by himfelf, of which the fubjefts are, Samfon, 

 Sifera, Judith, and David, (David is here the llrippling, 

 and bears the head of Geliah). He alfo engraved " A Peni- 

 tent Ma5;;dalen," after James Matham, in folio ; and 

 *' Chrift conduced to Calvary," alfo in folio, and after 

 Tintoretto. 



William van Swanenbourg, or Swanenburch, was born at 

 Leyden in the year 1581. He was the difciple of Saen- 

 redam, and did honour to his mailer and himfelf, by the 

 freedom and vigour of his engraving. Abram Bofle recom- 

 mends his prints to lludcnts in the art, on account of the 

 beauty of his touch : yet it muft be confeffed that the 

 drawing of Swanenbourg is mannered and defeftive ; and if 

 fludents fhouid imitate, where it is applicable, tlte boldnefs 

 of his handling, and his dexterity of touch, they (hould 

 afpire to piu-er delineations of form. 



He affixed to his engravings a monogram, for which, fee 

 Plate IL of thofe ufed by the engravers of the Netherlands. 

 We fhall fpecify the following prints from the graver of 

 Swanenbourg, as being moll worthy of the attention of the 

 tonnoilTeur. 



Portraits. — Abraham Bloemart, in an ornamented border ; 

 Janus Hautenus, iecretary of Leyden, both in 4to. ; Daniel 

 Heinfius, proteffor of Leyden ; John Heurnius, doftor of 

 medicine at Leyden; John William, duke of Cleve; Maurice, 

 prince of Orange and Naflau ; Erneft Cafimir, count of 

 Naffau, frem P. Moreelfen, in large foho ; and Petrus 

 Jeanninus, eques, banc maximi viri efRgiem ex vultu es- 

 preffit Michael Mirevelt, &c. in folio. 



Hijlorical, i^c. after various Painters. — "Jacob defrauding 

 his Brother outof Ifaac's Bleffing ;" and "The Refurreftion 

 of Our Saviour," both from P. Moreelfen, in large folio. 

 A ruftic fellival at the entrance of a village, after Vincken- 

 booms, in large felio. " The Judgment of Paris," from 

 M. Mirevelt ; " Perfeus refcuing Andromeda," after Saen- 

 redam, in folio ; " The Adoration of the Shepherds," after 

 Abr. Bloemart, in fmall folio ; " The Six Penitents," in 

 folio, mz. Saul, St. Peter, St. Paul, Zaccheus, Judas If- 

 cariot, and the Magdalen. " St. Jerome in the Wilder- 

 nefs ;" " The Repentance of St. Peter." Three fubjefts 

 emblematical of Piety, Riches, and Vanity, in fmall foho, 

 all from Bloemart. " Lot and his Daughters ;" and 

 " Jefas at Table with the Pilgrims at Emmaus," both from 

 Rubens : and a fet of fourteen, commencing by " Jefus 

 Chrift carrying the Crofs," and ending with " The Laft 



Judgment," entitled " Thronus Jufticiae. Hoc ell optimoa 

 Jullicix traftatus eletliffimis quibufque exempUs judiciariis 

 aeri incifis illullratus. Joachim Uytenwael, pinx. G. 

 Swanenburch, fculp. 1605, 1606." 



Cornelius Boel was born at Antwerp in the year 1576. 

 He was of the fame family with Peter Boel, the eminent 

 painter of animals and flowers, but ftudied engraving ap- 

 parentlv in the fchool of the Sadelers. He made little uie 

 of any other inftrument than the graver, which he handled 

 with ability in a clear and neat ftyle. 



Boel engraved a fet of fmall owl plates for the fables of 

 Otho Vxnius, which were infcribed with Latin, Englilh, and 

 Italian verfes, and publilhed at Antwerp in 1608. " The 

 Lafl Judgment," from a compofition by himfelf, in fmall 

 folio, and the portrait of Henry, prince of Wales, in an 

 ornamented border, and of quarto fize. 



From this latter plate, and the infcription beneath the 

 frontifpiece to the large folio Bible, which was publilhed 

 here by royal authority in the year i6n, which infcription 

 runs, " C. Boel fecit, in Richmont ;" it is inferred that 

 our artill vifitcd England about the middle period of his life. 

 But hi;i principal and great work was a fet of eight large 

 plates, from Antonio Tempella, of which the fubjefts are 

 " The Battles of Charles V. with Francis L" 



The family of Hondius or de Hondt was numerous, and 

 fome of them of dillinguiflied merit in the arts. Joll, or 

 Jodocus, was the fon of Oliver Hondius, a very ii.genious 

 artill of Ghent, where, in the year 1563, our artill was 

 born, and where he pafled his youth in the fuccefsful ftudy 

 of fome branches of the mathematics ; but the intelline com- 

 motions which agitated that city, about the period that Joll 

 attained the age of manhood, occalioned him to feek refuge 

 in England. 



Here he foll»wed various purfuits, as various occafions 

 called forth and developed the variety of his talents. He 

 made mathematical inftruments, fabricated types for letter- 

 prefs printing, and engraved maps and charts. Here alfo 

 he married in the year 1586, and had feveral children. He 

 afterwards removed to Amfterdam, and died there A.D. 

 1611. 



Jodocus alfo engraved a few portraits, which are neatly 

 executed, though in other refpefts their intrinfic merit is 

 not confiderable : among them are the celebrated Englilh 

 navigators, Thomas Cavendilh and fir Francis Drake. The 

 latter is a large plate, and is commended by Strutt. 



From an artill, hovs'ever, fo varioufly employed as Hon- 

 dius wasi no man expefts exquifite engravings ; the place of 

 his refidence being England, and the time, the clofe of the 

 fifteenth and the commencement of the fixteenth centuries. 

 He fometimes marked his plates with the cypher, which 

 may be feen in Plate HI. of thefe of the engravers of tiie 

 Low Countries ; and at others, with a hound barking, and 

 infcribed " fub cane vigilante;" which hound is, in taft, a 

 pun upon his family name. 



Befide what we have mentioned above, Jedocus engraved 

 the charts for Drake's Voyages, and feveral of the maps 

 for Speed's CoUeftions, in large folio, which latter are in 

 general embellilhed with figures ; and Flerent le Comte 

 mentions, among the works of this engraver, a large per- 

 fpeftive view of London, publilhed at Amfterdam in 1620 ; 

 but Strutt very reafonably infers a millake either in tlie 

 engraver's name, or the date of this print. 



Henry Hondius the elder, fo called in contradillinftion to 

 him of whom we fhall fpeak hereafter, was born at Duffel 

 in Brabant, A.D. 1576, and died at the Hague in 1610. 

 Whether he was the fon or brother of Jodocus has been dif- 

 puted, but is not known. 



He 



