Joris Van Grieken

Cock's importance as a painter and art conoisseur and his role as a patron and propagator of the fine arts are strongly emphasized in modern art-historical literature, while there is little to be found on the commercial aspects of his printmaking activities. Yet 'Aux quatre vents' was in fact a commercially very successful enterprise that made its money - otherwise than generally assumed - from selling not just artistically high quality prints but also devotional prints and other less prestigious graphic items. Maps, city views and news sheets were also an essantial part of Cock's stocklist. From the analysis of some archival documents we seek here to gain a better understanding of the commercial activities of the publishing house.

In a letter (1565) to Giorgio Vasari the Liège painter Lambert Lombard called the German painter and printmaker Martin Schongauer a student of Rogier van der Weyden. Although this assertion is not in accordance with the biographical data of both artists, it is clear that from a very early date the style of Van der Weyden was linked to the prints of Schongauer. Many other engravers from the initial years of printmaking seem to have been familiar with particular inventions from the workshops of Campin and Van der Weyden. This contribution focuses on the role that prints played in the late reception and posthumous reputation of Rogier and his pictural style.

During the 1550’s and 60’s Antwerp developed into one of the leading centres of European intaglio printmaking. Entrepreneurs such as Hieronymus Cock, Gerard de Jode and Hans Liefrinck found an increasingly international audience for their quality intaglio prints in the higher market segment. At the eve of the crisis this small circle of leading publishers had to face only limited competition from a handful of local engravers and artists who occasionally published prints themselves. The socio-economical impact of the crisis would completely reshape the field in the next two decades. This paper will discuss the way in which conflict, crisis and religious turmoil would lead to a spectacular growth in Antwerp print production and trade. We will see how artists and art dealers involved traditionally in the production and distribution of paintings turned increasingly towards printmaking. Despite the crisis the print business would flourish as never before, leading to more competition and a further diversification of the subject matter supplied.

It is widely believed that intaglio printing has its origin in the workshops of 15th-century armorers and goldsmiths. In order to preserve a decorative pattern engraved on a work as a workshop model, they started to print it with ink on paper. As a result the first engravings must have been impressions from objects in precious metal or steel. In this process it was the ‘matrix’ itself that was meant as a finished object while the ‘impression’ had only a rather ephemeral status.

As intaglio engraving developed as an independent art this process started to work in the opposite way. The impression became the marketable finished product, while the plate used for printing – no longer in precious metal – was valued in a strictly economical way, depending on the amount of impressions that could be pulled of it.

Intaglio plates in themselves – however often made with great skill and artistry – never seem to have been objects of artistic appreciation. Nevertheless there are some examples from the Netherlands dating from the second half of the sixteenth-century that indicate that there must have been some renewed interest in the artistry of the engraved surface.

Some of these ‘engraved pieces’ – often virtuoso works in the form of a portrait or allegory – were executed in silver, a material essentially inappropriate for pulling large numbers of impressions from it, but laden with the aura of durability, preciousness and numerous other symbolic associations. In this more noble material they possibly functioned as mementos. Once again printmakers operated along the boundaries of goldsmiths’ work, seemingly inspired by coins, medals, and ex-votos which mostly were executed in precious metal. In this contribution the role and status of such ‘engraved pieces’, and their relationship with the (rare) impressions on paper that have been made of them, will be investigated. In this context the question will be posed to which extent these “showpieces” are symptomatic for the emancipation of printmaking, and specifically intaglio engraving, as an artistic branch, which is so typical for the Netherlands in the second half of the 16th-century.

A copy or a reproduction can tell us a lot about the appreciation, which copyists and their patrons had for the original that was copied. This seems to be specifically demonstrable in cases were the original and the copy are remote in time and context. The needs and conditions which formed the basis of the original’s creation, could hardly have been the same in another era and under different circumstances.

In order to obtain a usable analysis of this differentiation, it is necessary to group and contextualise copies. This process of contextualisation is not easy in al cases. Some copies are artistically and historically documented. For others one has to rely on the study of materiality, working-methods and style, before a geographical and chronological situation is possible. Finally the reconstruction of a good part of the socio-cultural network, in which copies originated and functioned, is unavoidable. This approach can provide new insights into the reception of Early-Netherlandish art in the second half of the sixteenth century.

This period, which resulted into the publication of Van Mander’s ‘ Schilderboek’ in 1604, is very significant for the formation of an historical vision on the artistic past of the Low Countries.  The modest amount of written sources offers a rather limited view on the evolution of this process of early art-historical realisation. Moreover, the risk is run that opinions, tastes and appreciations of specific 16th century literary circles get overemphasised to the disadvantage of those of other sections of society. By involving figurative sources as painted copies and graphic renditions or reproductions our insight can become more nuanced.

My paper will consider two different clusters of works, on the hand of which the significance of copies and (reproductive) prints in the debate on reception will be revealed. The first consists of copies and a print after the famous ‘ deposition’ by Rogier van der Weyden. The second cluster comprehends two related representations of a Calvary, executed in an early-Netherlandish style, of which numerous painted and printed versions can be dated in the second half of the sixteenth century. These two opponent groups will demonstrate different aspects of the late 16th-century view on 15th-century Netherlandish art.

In 2019 wordt wereldwijd speciale aandacht geschonken aan Pieter Bruegel de Oude. Het is dan exact 450 jaar geleden dat de bekende kunstenaar overleed. Bruegel wordt feestelijk herdacht met spraakmakende tentoonstellingen in zowel binnen- als buitenland. Nieuwe tentoonstellingen vragen echter om nieuw onderzoek en nieuw onderzoek om nieuwe technieken. Daarom sloegen de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België en de KU Leuven de handen in elkaar in het kader van een BRAIN-project van Belspo. FINGERPRINT is een interdisciplinair project waarbij kunsthistorisch en kunsttechnisch onderzoek, digitale beeldvorming, beeldverwerking, conservatie- en restauratiewetenschappen en databeheer worden samengebrachtstatus: publishe

Fingerprint is an interdisciplinary project, involving art history, art technical research, digital imaging, image processing, conservation science and collection and data management. The aim is to use advanced digital imaging, statistical processing and laboratory analyses to monitor and evaluate the phases of the genesis of a print, from the unique preparatory drawings through proof impressions to later states and editions. Royal Library of Belgium, Print Room KU Leuven, Illuminare - Book Heritage Lab, ESAT, Digital Lab lieve.watteeuw@kuleuven.be

Hieronymus Cock (1518-1570) was an Antwerp painter and printmaker. Together with his wife, he was one of the first to establish a publishing house for prints. From 1548 their firm "At the Sign of the Four Winds" issued hundreds of important etchings and engravings. Prints after frescoes and paintings by Italian artists Raphael and Bronzino, the first series of classical ruins, antique sculpture, as well as designs by such Northern artists as Maarten van Heemskerck and Frans Floris were distributed all over Europe and helped to spread Renaissance ideals of beauty. It was Cock who spotted the talent of Pieter Bruegel, an artist who would eventually supply Cock with more than sixty designs for prints.

One of the greatest Netherlandish artists, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) is best known today for his paintings of peasant life. Yet it was above all through his exceptional graphic work that he achieved widespread fame during the 16th century. This luxurious book offers readers the opportunity to get up close and personal with Bruegel's famous prints. Published as part of this special Bruegel year, it accompanies the exhibition at the Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels, which is renowned as a pioneer in Bruegel scholarship and holds an unparalleled collection of the artist's graphic work.