LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OE THE. 



rior value. " St. Therefa interceding at the Feet of Chrift, 

 for the Souls in Purgatory," in large folio. Nymphs and 

 fatyrs laden with fruit and game, half figures, commonly 

 called " The Return from thcChace," in folio. " A drunken 

 Silenus," fupported by a fatyr, and another figure. The 

 impreflions, with the name of Bolfwert only, without the 

 addrefs-, are die earlieft and bell. " The Continence of 

 Scipio," in large folio. Thofe imprefTions are the bell with 

 the name of Hendrix. " A triumphal Arch," in honour of 

 Ferdinand, cardinal-infanta of Spain, and governor of the 

 Low Countries, in large folio, and " Jefns Chrift, the two 

 .Virgins, four Angels, and many other holy Perfons," en- 

 graved by S. a Bolfwert and Corn. Galle, and infcribed with 

 the name of Hendrix, in folio. 



Paul dc Pont, or Pontius, the third of our celebrated 

 chalcographic triumvirate of the Netherlands, was born at 

 Antwerp A. D. 1596, and became the dileiple of the 

 elder Vorfterman, both mafter and pupil being at the time 

 befriended and improved by the frequent counfel and advice 

 of Ruljens. The bell works of Pontius, and which form 

 the bans of his well founded celebrity, are free graphic tranl- 

 lations from the originals of that great mailer, in the ac- 

 complidiment of which he united preciliou of touch, with a 

 nice perception of form, charadter, and expreflion. His 

 manual power and command of the graver was fcarcely in- 

 ferior to that of his contemporary Bolfwert, and if in tafte 

 he was inferior to Vorfterman ; in a juft and even penetrating 

 obfervation of the peculiar merits of the pidure before him, 

 and the principles upon which thofe excellencies were pro- 

 duced and connefted, he was inferior to neither. Care, ob- 

 fervation, feeling, were pre-eminently his; and hence the truth 

 and vigour of his hiftorical heads. Genius, and profound 

 knowledge of the human figure, certainly belonged in 

 higher degrees of perfeftion to Vorfterman and the Bolf- 

 werts. 



In commenting on the produdlions of this illuftrious tri- 

 umvirate, a foreign critic of eminence dwells with juft em- 

 phafis on the negleft and the importance of afcertaining 

 what ought to be elleemed principle in engraving, as well as 

 in all other arts that are with propriety fo termed ; and 

 when we call to mind, and apply the well-founded apliorifm 

 of Hippocrates, that " art is long, Ufe fhort, opportunity 

 fleeting, and even experiment, fometimes fallacious," it may 

 well fecm extraordinary that among the critics and connoif- 

 feurs of the Low Countries, nothing was done towards 

 afcertaining and publicly explaining the merits of thefe admi- 

 rable engravers, and that in any part of Europe, fo little has 

 been done in this art toward afcertaining principle at all. The 

 art of the ftatuary, and the fiftcr art of painting, have been 

 cultivated, and have flourifhed under the mild apd cheering in- 

 fluence of fettled laws ; their aftual progrefs, as well as oc- 

 cafional retrogradations, are known and un^derftood : while 

 engraving has been doomed to the undetefted endurance of 

 the wildeft anarchy ; of hcentious and contradictory prac- 

 tice ; and merit, demerit, and mediocrity, have alike had 

 their hour of idle gazing, and have alike fleeted from that 

 fteady critical comment which (hould have marked the ftages 

 of the progrefs of the art. 



Some writers have idly aflerted that Rubens occafionally 

 worked on the plates of thefe artifts. The fact is, (as we 

 have reported in our fhort notice of the etchings of this 

 mafter), that Rubens had fo little pretenfions of this kind, 

 indeed was fo far from pofteffing any power over the graver, 

 that the few touches that were wanting after corrofion, to 

 the completion of his plates, were fupplied by his friends 

 Vorfterman, Bolfwert, or Pontius. The error has origi- 



nated from its having been the cuftom of thefe artifts, for Ru- 

 bens to revife and touch from time to time upon trial-proofs 

 that were taken to afcertain the engraver's progrefs: in doing 

 which, as thefe engravers worked after Rubens and Van- 

 dyke, with the freedom and fellow-feeling of friends, not 

 with the fervility of (laves, it was fometimes found necef- 

 fary to vary the chiarofcuro from the original piftures, m 

 order that when the local colours were abllrafted, tlie fpec- 

 tator's perceptive faculties fliould be impreiTed or operated 

 upon, in a fimilar manner, and conlequently his mind af- 

 fefted in the fame way, as by the combinations of colour with 

 light and (hade in the original pictures : for, paradoxical 

 though ic may appear, it is clear that thefe men of genius 

 thought and felt thus upon the f\ibjeft, nor is it lefs clear to 

 thofe wlio ftudioully compare the engravings of thefe mailers 

 with Rubens' original piftures, that they were right in fo 

 thinkin"-. 



o 



The following engravings, from the hand of P. Pontius, 

 are defervedly held in confiderable eftimation. 



Porlrails after Vaiidyhe. — Paul Pontius, engraved by 

 himfelf ; fir Peter Paul Rubens ; James de Breuck, archi- 

 tedl ; John Wildens ; John vans Ravellein ; Palamede Pa- 

 lamcdelTcn ; Theodore Vanioo ; Theodore Ronibouts ; Ge- 

 rard Honthorft ; Henry van Balen ; Adrian Stalbent ; 

 Gerard Segher ; Simon de Vos ; Daniel Mytens ; Gafpar 

 de Crayes ; and Martin Pcpyn ; all celebrated artiils of 

 Antwerp. Gafpar Gevartius, juris-conlulte ; and Nicholas 

 Rockok, niagiftrate of Antwerp ; John van den Wouwer, 

 counle'.ior to the king of Spain ; C^far Alexander Scaglia, 

 abbe of Staphard ; Guftavus Adolphus, king of Sweden ; 

 Mary of Medicis, queen of France ; Emanuel Frocas Pe- 

 rera, count of Feria ; Francis Thomas, of Savoy, prince 

 of Carignano ; John, count of NafTau, general to the king 

 of Spain ; Don Alvarez, marquis of Santa Cruz, and go- 

 vernor of the Low Countriet; ; Don Carlos, of Colonna, (a 

 Spamih general ;) Don Diego Philip de Gufman, marquis 

 of Leganez, and Spanidi general ; Mary, princefs d'Arem- 

 berg ; Henry, count de Berghe ; Cornehus van den Geeft; 

 and Balthafar Gerbier, minifter from the court of Spain to 

 that of England, all of folio aimenfions ; Frederic Henry, 

 prince of Orange ; and Francis Thomas of Savoy, prince of 

 Carignano, both in large folio. 



Portraits after Ritlcns. — Sir Peter Paul Rubens ; Gafpar 

 Gevaerto, juris-confulte ; Ladiflaus Sigifmond, prince of 

 Poland and Sweden, all in folio ; Philip IV. king of Spain; 

 and its companion, Elizabeth of Bourbon, his queen, (the 

 beft impreflions of thefe portraits are before the name of 

 G. Hendrix, was inferted ;) Ehzabeth Clara Eugenia, 

 infanta of Spain ; Ferdinand, cardinal, infanta of Spain, 

 and governor of the Low Countries ; Gafpar Gufman, 

 duke of Olivares, a very fine portrait, done from a copy by 

 Rubens, of a pifture of Velafquez, all in large folio ; and 

 a fet of three, in folio, very fine and rare portraits, of Chrif- 

 toval, marquis of Callel-Rodrigo ; Manuel de Moura Cor- 

 tereal, marquis of the fame place ; and a Spanifh lady, 

 adorned with a necklace of precious ftones ; the mother of 

 Manuel of Callel-Rodrigo. 



Portraits from •various other Painters. — Raphael d'Urbino, 

 in the collume of his age ; Ambrofius, count of Homes, 

 after F. de Nys ; Abel Servien, count de la Roche des 

 Aubins, and miniller plenipotentiary to the court of Mun- 

 fter, after Anf van HuUe ; and John de Heem, a painter 

 of Utrecht, after John Lyvins, all of folio dimenfions. 



Hijlorical Subjects, after Rubens. — " Sufanna furprifed by 

 the Elders;"/ "The Adoration of the Shepherds,'' (a cir- 

 cular plate,) both in large folio ; " The Slaughter of the 

 1 1 Innocents,'' 



