Frans van den Wyngaerde

Frans van den Wyngaerde or Frans van den Wijngaerde[1] (Antwerp, 8 July 1614 – Antwerp 17 March 1679) was a Flemish printmaker, draughtsman and publisher.[2] One of the leading print publishers in 17th-century Antwerp, he created and published multiple reproductive prints after Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck as well as foreign artists.[3]

Self-Portrait

Life

Frans van den Wyngaerde was born in 1614 to a family of fishmongers. He was baptized in Antwerp on July 8 of that year. Van den Wyngaerde became an apprentice of the Rubens collaborator Paulus Pontius (1603-1658) when he was about 14 years old. He was enrolled as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke from the Guild year 1636–1637. Lacking sufficient funds, the dean of the guild loaned him part of the membership fee.

The artist was successful and in 1640, he married Maria Cruyt, the daughter of wealthy merchants.[3] He became a captain of a local schutterij, a civil guard.[2]

By the middle of the 17th century van den Wyngaerde had become a leading publisher of prints in Antwerp, along with Martinus van den Enden, Gillis (or Gilles) Hendricx (?-1677) and Joannes Meyssens (1612-1670).[3]

Samson killing the lion, after Rubens

He died in 1679 with substantial assets.[3]

Work

Van den Wyngaerde was active as a reproductive artist as well as an original artist creating his own designs.

Van den Wyngaerde's prints after his own original designs include etchings, engravings and plates in which both techniques are used. His subject matter ranges from religious scenes and allegories to genre scenes and portraits. He made a series of 50 portraits of Catholic cardinals, 11 illustrations of battle scenes for a book and 26 sheets of illustrations of emblems for a religious book.

In addition to publishing his own work and that of his contemporaries, van den Wyngaerde reused old plates by well-established artists to which he added his name and then reissued. He published seven plates by Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), a Spanish artist working in Naples.[3]

Notes
  1. His name is sometimes also spelled Francis vanden Wyngaert
  2. Frans van den Wyngaerde at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
  3. Frans van den Wyngaerde at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
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