Graphic Design and Typography

(b Paderborn, 1502; d Soest, Westphalia, 1555–61).

German engraver, painter and designer. He was the most important graphic artist in Westphalia in the 16th century. His reputation rests largely on his ornamental designs, which make up about one third of his c. 300 engravings. They were principally intended as models for metalworkers but were also adapted by other craftsmen for such decorative arts as enamel, intarsia and book illustration. Aldegrever followed Dürer and the Nuremberg Little Masters, deriving models for his paintings and subject prints as well as a full repertory of Renaissance ornamental motifs: fig and Acanthus foliage, vases and cornucopia, combined with putti and satyrs, tritons, mermaids and dolphins, sphinxes, masks and medallions. From the beginning of his career Aldegrever was aware of the artistic trends of the time: the Dürer influence was strongest at its outset yielding somewhat in work of the 1530s to Mannerist tendencies under Netherlandish influence, though never waning entirely.

Aldegrever was the son of Hermann Trippenmeker (...

[l’Argenta]

(b Argenta, nr Ferrara, 1546; d Ferrara, Dec 9, 1636).

Italian architect, engineer and designer. He was the son of Vincenzo Aleotti (not Francesco Aleotti, as is sometimes erroneously stated), from whom Giovanni Battista claimed he ‘learnt the art … as much as from all the other teachers I had’ (letter, 1583; see Coffin, p. 121). In 1575 he succeeded Galasso Alghisi as architect to Alfonso II d’Este (ii), Duke of Ferrara and Modena, who nicknamed him l’Argenta after the town of his birth. When, on the death of the Duke, the Este duchy devolved to the Papal States (1598), Aleotti was confirmed as official architect, with a stipend of 20 scudi per month. His activity extended to various parts of the Po plain, embracing different architectural genres and including some important urban projects.

Among Aleotti’s religious buildings were several churches in Ferrara, including S Barbara (1586–8), S Maria della Rotonda at Castel Tedaldo (1597...

(b Rovigo, 1486–7; d 1542).

Italian maiolica painter . More is known about Avelli than any other maiolica painter because of his many signed works and the autobiographical details included in his sonnets in honour of Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. Avelli considered himself to be not only an artist but also a poet and courtier. His intellectual abilities set him apart from his colleagues, even if as a painter he was not the most talented. He seems never to have directed his own workshop, but he is known to have worked in Urbino from 1530, the year of his first unequivocally signed and dated plate; some pieces from the 1520s signed f.r. and f.l.r. may also be ascribed to him. His familiarity with Classical and contemporary literature is evident in his choice of secular and religious subjects, taken from such authors as Virgil and Ovid, Ariosto and Petrarch (e.g. plate, 1531; London, BM). He also depicted contemporary events, sometimes in allegorical form, for example the Sack of Rome (...

Polish, 17th century, male.

Active in Cracow towards the end of the 17th century.

Engraver (wood).

Nikolaus Bereszniewicz is mentioned from 1678 to 1689 as illustrator of literary works including Fortuna by Jan Gawinski. He also signed a plate showing a young woman, dated 1680...

Italian family of typographers, engravers, publishers and print dealers. Members of the family were active in Venice and Padua in the 16th century and the early 17th. Most notable among them were Luca Bertelli (fl Venice, c. 1560; fl Padua, 1594), Orazio Bertelli (fl Venice, 1562–88), who was possibly Luca’s brother, and Ferdinando (Ferrando, Ferrante) Bertelli (fl Venice, 1561–72). It is difficult to determine the extent of Luca Bertelli’s participation in the execution of the prints he published; they were mainly historical, religious and mythological. Orazio Bertelli probably encouraged Agostino Carracci’s visit to Venice in 1582. Orazio’s engravings included the works of Federico Barocci, Domenico Tibaldi and Paolo Veronese, notably a Pietà (De Grazia, p. 125, no. 102). Ferdinando Bertelli was best known for his publication of a vast number of maps, by both Italian and foreign cartographers.

(b Sangerhausen, July 30, 1641; d Dresden, May 29, 1706).

German painter, draughtsman, graphic artist and writer on art. He was a son and pupil of Andreas Bottschild II (c. 1590–1657), a painter and engraver, who decorated churches in Sangerhausen. Samuel had further training with his brother Johann Andreas Bottschild (b 1630; d after 1670), with whom he went to Saxony. In 1658–61 they worked jointly on gallery paintings of 19 scenes from the Passion (heavily restored 1852) in the Dorfkirche at Hohnstädt, near Leipzig. The decorations for the banqueting hall of Schloss Rötha, near Leipzig (c. 1668–70; destr.), were Bottschild’s first complete programme of mythological themes. At Rötha he also completed two group portraits of the female and male lines of the Friesen family (Dresden, Inst. Dkmlpf.)

In 1673 Bottschild painted a Presentation in the Temple for Freiberg Cathedral. It was probably after this that he left for Italy with his cousin and pupil ...

(b Amsterdam, 1522; d Gouda, Oct 29, 1590).

Dutch printmaker, poet, writer, theologian and philosopher. His work as a printmaker began in Haarlem in 1547, when he made a woodcut for a lottery poster after a design of Maarten van Heemskerck. From then until 1559 Coornhert worked as Heemskerck’s principal engraver. Initially he etched his plates, but during the 1550s he turned to engraving. He was possibly also responsible for the woodcuts after Heemskerck and the publication of Heemskerck’s early prints. In addition, he engraved designs by Willem Thibaut (1524–97) in 1556–7, Lambert Lombard in 1556 and Frans Floris in 1554–7. During this period Philip Galle was his pupil. In 1560 Coornhert temporarily stopped his engraving activities, set up a print publishing house, became a clerk and devoted himself to his literary work. In 1567 he was arrested for political reasons but managed to escape to Cologne in 1568. During his exile, which lasted until 1576...

(b Topeka, KS, April 27, 1899; d Nashville, TN, Feb 3, 1979).

American painter and illustrator. He was a leading artist of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s (see African American art §I 2.). He studied at the University of Nebraska and then in Paris with Charles Despiau and Othon Friesz (1925–31). Douglas was the earliest African American artist consciously to include African imagery in his work, which emphasized the creativity and continuity of African American culture, despite slavery and segregation. He was, however, criticized by his contemporaries for his idealism. In 1934, under the sponsorship of the Public Works of Art project (see United States of America, §XII), he designed a number of murals, including four panels depicting Aspects of Negro Life for the Schomburg Library in Harlem (New York, Pub. Lib.); this work and such others as Judgment Day (1939; USA, priv. col., see exh. cat., no. 99) and Building More Stately Mansions...

Dutch, 17th century, male.

Engraver. Seals.

Christophe van Dyck was an engraver who used the chasing-chisel for the elzevir typeface. He was held in high regard as a master of this distinctive form of lettering.

German, 17th century, male.

Active in Nuremberg.

Painter. Topographical views.

(Johann)

(b ?April 9, 1691; d Mannheim, Jan 11, 1752).

German sculptor, stuccoist, draughtsman and illustrator. He was the most important sculptor active in Franconia and the Palatinate in the first half of the 18th century; nevertheless, although his very individual late Baroque sculpture, mostly carved in wood, was highly regarded by his contemporaries, he was quickly forgotten after his death. His rich oeuvre was severely depleted, particularly as a result of World War II. It was only after that date that his importance was reassessed. Egell probably served an apprenticeship with the Würzburg sculptor Balthasar Esterbauer (1672–1722) and collaborated on the interior decoration of the Banz monastery. His first documented work is an expressive Crucifix made in 1716 for St Michael’s Monastery in Bamberg (now in St Otto, Bamberg). His stylistic development was affected by his work between 1716–17 and 1719 as one of the team directed by Balthasar Permoser, which made all the sculptural decorations at the Zwinger in Dresden for ...

(b Warburg, 1553–4; d Warburg, 1603).

German goldsmith, engraver and draughtsman. Probably from a long-established Warburg family of freemen, he is first fully named in 1578, in an engraving that shows his connections with scholars as an illustrator of academic works. One of these was Michele Mercati, for whom Eisenhoit worked during a stay in Rome c. 1580 on the Metallotheca Vaticana, a work cataloguing the Vatican’s scientific collections. His style draws principally on the Roman Late Renaissance. Back in Germany by c. 1582–5, Eisenhoit began to work primarily for patrons residing near Warburg, where he had settled by 1587 at the latest. Commissions of these years show work for the Hessian courts in Kassel and Marburg and the beginning of his cooperation with Jost Bürgi, instrument-maker and mathematician to the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. Between c. 1582 and 1594 Eisenhoit decorated Bürgi’s mechanical celestial globes with engravings and illustrated with etchings a treatise on engineering.

Eisenhoit’s first works in gold (...

(b c. 1495–1500; d after 1541).

German painter. On 12 January 1521 he received citizenship of Nuremberg, where he is thought to have studied under Wolf Traut. Like Traut, he used an austere graphic line and dry, bright colours. While in Nuremberg he painted a Portrait of a Man (1523; Heidelberg, Kurpfälz. Mus.; stolen 1974) and a portrait of Hans Geyer (1524; Raleigh, NC Mus. A.). By 1527 he was working for Kasimir, Markgraf zu Brandenburg-Kulmbach, Burgrave of Nuremberg (1481–1527); he later painted a memorial picture of the Margrave with his wife Susanna (untraced; copy, Heilbronn, Protestant Pfarrkirche). When Susanna then married Otto Henry, the future Elector Palatine, in 1529, Gertner went with her to the court of Neuburg an der Donau. A portrait of her (c. 1530; Berchtesgaden, Schlossmus.) was followed by portraits of Otto Henry and other members of the house of Wittelsbach (1531–9; mostly in Munich, Bayer. Nmus.) which took ‘maister Peter, Hofmaller’ to various German courts. That of ...

(b c. 1510; d ?Bologna, c. 1565).

French sculptor, illustrator and architect. He was one of the great masters of relief sculpture. Through his collaboration with the architect Pierre Lescot he was involved in many major building projects, and in his refined relief sculptures, such as the carved panels for the Fountain of the Innocents, Paris, he achieved a highly personal synthesis between the mannered style of the Fontainebleau school and a classicism derived from his study of antique sculpture. He illustrated with skilful and lively wood-engravings Jean Baptiste Martin I’s first complete French translation (Paris, 1547) of Vitruvius, De architectura: Architecture ou art de bien bastir, an edition that was to have considerable influence on the revival of the classical style in France.

Goujon was possibly of Norman origin, and the knowledge of the sculpture and architecture of anti-quity and the Italian Renaissance displayed in his works suggests that he spent time in Italy. He is first recorded at Rouen in ...

Dutch, 17th century, male.

Active in Amsterdam.

Born 1591.

Wood carver.

Along with Salomon Rogier, Hamersvelt undertook the carving of 36 geographic maps for the Amsterdam publisher H. Hondius. Probably belonging to this series is a map of the Holy Land, embellished with figures and ornaments, and signed by both artists....

German, 17th century, male.

Activec.1640.

Painter.

Heins provided several portraits for the Chalcographic Library by Jean-Jacques Boissard.

(b Kotagiri, Madras, India, March 13, 1836; d London, Nov 25, 1875).

English painter and illustrator. He played a leading role in the renaissance of wood-engraved illustration during the so-called golden decade of English book illustration (c. 1860–75), when a new school of artists overcame the limitations of the medium. Deeply influenced by the idealism of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he imbued both his paintings and drawings with a haunting blend of poetic realism. He was the fourth son of Captain John Michael Houghton (1797–1874), who served in the East India Company’s Marine as a draughtsman.

Houghton was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools, London, in 1854 but did not pass further than the Life School. He received additional training at J. M. Leigh’s academy and its convivial corollary, the Langham Artists’ Society, which was then a forcing-house for young impoverished painters who wished to have a foot in both publishing and the fine arts. There, with older artists such as Charles Keene and John Tenniel, he learnt to run the race against time with a set weekly subject. Keene, already a well-known contributor to ...

(b Dieppe, c. 1533; d London, before June 1, 1588).

French painter, illustrator and explorer, also active in Florida and England. In April 1564 he sailed with René de Laudonnière as artist of the Huguenot expedition to Florida. In September 1565 the Spaniards overran the colony, but he escaped and returned to France. By c. 1580 he had settled in Blackfriars, London, ‘for religion’ and received letters of denization on 12 May 1581. He later came into contact with Sir Walter Ralegh and his colonizing circle and with John White, the artist of the first English colony of Virginia, with whom he exchanged ideas and perhaps collaborated. Ralegh commissioned him to illustrate the Florida enterprise, and Le Moyne produced an account Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida … acciderunt … auctore Iacobo le Moyne with 42 illustrations and a map that Theodor de Bry published in Frankfurt am Main in 1591 as the second part of his Collectiones perigrinationum in Indiam orientalem et occidentalem...

[Kristoffel; Stoffel]

(b Zurich, Feb 1558; d Winterthur, March 27, 1614).

Swiss glass painter, woodcut designer, etcher, book illustrator and writer. He was the son and pupil of the glass painter and councillor Jos Murer (1530–80), founder of a family of artists who lived in Zurich in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1577 he collaborated with his father on a cycle of 13 pairs of panes representing Thirteen Historic Scenes of the Swiss Confederation for the Zisterzienkloster of Wettingen, Aargau. Christoph’s monograms (sm, stm) are on three panes. He probably followed this work with study travels. In 1579 he designed a cycle of panes in Basle for the well-known citizen Leonhard Thurneysser (1531–96), celebrating the adventurous life of this much-travelled goldsmith, alchemist, astrologer and personal physician to the Elector of Brandenburg. Of the original cycle, two paintings, including the Birth of Leonhard Thurneysser of Basle in 1531 (1579; Basle, Öff. Kstsamml.), and two design sketches (?...

(b Perugia, c. 1555; d probably Rome, 1622).

Italian writer and theorist. His fame and most of the scant biographical information that exists derives from his one very successful work: the Iconologia. First published in Rome in 1593, it went through many editions and translations, the text being expanded and ‘improved’ first by Ripa himself, then still more by friends and publishers. Like Vincenzo Cartari’s handbook of mythology, Le imagini de i dei (Venice, 1556), the book was not originally illustrated. Its real impact came when it appeared with a selection of woodcuts in 1603. Proceeding systematically through more than 1000 images and nearly 700 concepts, from Abundance (a garlanded woman clad in gold with a bunch of mustard and poppies and a cornucopia) to Zeal (a man dressed as an ancient priest holding a scourge and a lamp), it describes and prescribes ways to represent allegorical figures. Thus, whatever associations this title may evoke today, the book is the most straightforward of iconographic manuals....