Paulus Pontius and Anthony Van Dyck

Joannes van Ravesteyn, Pictor Iconum Hagae Comitis (Jan van Ravesteyn)

Paulus Pontius's original engraving, "Joannes van Ravesteyn, Pictor Iconum Hagae Comitis (Jan van Ravesteyn)" is based upon a design created by Anthony van Dyck. This impression is printed upon fine 17th century, hand-made, laid paper as published in 1645 for the (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp). It is signed in the plate by Paulus Pontius to the lower left and contains the period foolscap watermark. This is a fine, original example of portrait engraving from the famous Iconography of Anthony Van Dyck.

A Dutch portrait and military painter, Jan Van Ravesteyn was born about 1572. He studied under Michael Mierevelt and began his career in Delft. Early in the seventeenth century, he settled at the Hague and joined the Guild of St. Luke. Jan Van Ravesteyn was also a founding member of the Pictura Brotherhood (1656).

Anthony Van Dyck (Van Dyke) (Antwerp, Flanders, 1599 - 1641)
#	Image	Title & Artist	Engraver Info	Medium	Date	-
01.-		Cornelius De Vos, Pictor Iconum Antwerpiae (Cornelis De Vos) Engraved by Lucas Vorsterman designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Lucas Vorsterman (Zaltbommel, 1595 - Antwerp, 1675)	Original Engraving	1645 (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp)	Sold
02.-		Fra Lelio Blancatcio (Brancaccio), Commander of Malta Engraved by Nicolaes Lauwers designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Nicolaes Lauwers (Leuze 'Tournay' 1600 - Antwerp, 1652)	Original Engraving	1645 (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp)	Sold
03.-		Genevieve d'Urfe, Duchess of Croy Engraved by Pieter de Jode 'The Younger' designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Pieter de Jode 'The Younger' (Antwerp, 1604 - London ?, 1674)	Original Engraving	1645 (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp)
04.-		Henricus Arundelliae Comes (Henry, The Earl of Arundel) Engraved by Pierre Lombart designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Pierre Lombart (Paris, 1620 - 1681)	Original Engraving	1650 - 1660	Sold
05.-		James Stanley, Earl of Derby Engraved by Michael Van der Gucht designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Michael Van der Gucht (Antwerp, 1660 - London, 1725)	Original Engraving	c. 1690 - 1700
06.-		Joannes van Ravesteyn, Pictor Iconum Hagae Comitis (Jan van Ravesteyn) Engraved by Paulus Pontius designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Paulus Pontius (Antwerp, 1603 - 1658)	Original Engraving	1645 (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp)
07.-		Kennelmus Digbi, Eques (Sir Kenelm Digby) Engraved by Robert Van Voerst designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Robert Van Voerst (Arnheim, 1597 - London, 1636)	Original Engraving	1645 First published edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp	Sold
08.-		Paulus de Vos Engraved by Adrien Lommelin designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Adrien Lommelin (Amiens, 1636 - Antwerp, after 1673)	Original Engraving	c. 1660 - 1670
09.-		Paulus Pontius, Calcographus Antwerpiae Engraved by Paulus Pontius designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Paulus Pontius (Antwerp, 1603 - 1658)	Original Engraving	1645 (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp)	Sold
10.-		William Cavendish, 1st Marquis and Duke of Newcastle Engraved by Lucas Vorsterman designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Lucas Vorsterman (Zaltbommel, 1595 - Antwerp, 1675)	Original Engraving	c. 1630

Selected Directories in our Gallery (Art of The Print / www.artoftheprint.com), with a focus on the area of interest for this original work of art.
Art of the Print / www.artoftheprint.com sells international fine art. Our collection consists of original paintings, watercolors, drawings, and original prints, such as etchings, engravings, lithographs, woodcuts, silk-screens, aquatints, mezzotints, linocuts, monoprints, and other mediums of original art. All of these works of art have been created by prominent and established painters, illustrators, watercolour artists and printmakers from around the world. The art in our gallery ranges from the early Renaissance period to the modern and contemporary art period. You can view other original artworks similar to the subject under discussion on this page listed in the following art directories.
Century:
Old Master Artist Index	The 'Old Master' artist directory contains a selection of original works of art created by international painters, illustrators and graphic artists. These original works date from the Renaissance period to the end of the 1700's.
Country:
Dutch & Flemish Artist Index	This directory contains a listing of original works of art created by Dutch & Flemish artists and or views of Holland or art with a Dutch theme. The artworks date from the 17th century to the 20th century.
Subject:
Authors & Artists Portrayed in Art Index	The 'Authors & Artists Portrayed in Art' directory contains a listing of original works of art by international artists with a focus on artworks depicting studies and portraits of novelists, poets, biographers, historians, dramatists, painters & graphic artists and depictions with an artistic or literary theme.
Portraits & Figure Studies Index	The 'Portrait Studies' directory contains a listing of original works of art concentrating upon the theme of portraits, self-portraits and studies. Created by International artists throughout the centuries, these fine examples of portraiture have left a permanent and vivid record of their sitters.

Title:	Joannes van Ravesteyn, Pictor Iconum Hagae Comitis (Jan van Ravesteyn)
Engraver:	Pontius, Paulus (Antwerp, 1603 - 1658)
Designer:	Van Dyck (Van Dyke), Anthony (Antwerp, Flanders, 1599 - 1641)
Date:	1645 (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp)
Medium:	Original Engraving
Note:	Paulus Pontius (also known as Paulus Du Pont) is perhaps the most esteemed engraver of both Rubens and Van Dyck. Born in Antwerp, Paulus Pontius studied engraving techniques under Lucas Vorsterman. He became a primary engraver of Rubens at the age of twenty and his first dated Rubens engraving (Susannah and the Elders) bears the date of 1624. During the following twenty years Rubens commissioned Paulus Pontius to engrave many of his most famous paintings. Paulus Pontius became a Master of the Antwerp Guild in 1626.
	Paulus Pontius's engravings for Anthony Van Dyck are no less distinguished. In total he engraved over forty portraits for Van Dyck, including a large number for The Iconography. These include portraits of such painters as Peter Paul Rubens, Gerard Seghers, Jan Van Ravesteyn and his own portrait and of royalty such as Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, Mary de' Medici, Queen of France, and Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Jan Van Ravesteyn is typical of Paulus Pontius's great art for The Iconography.
	Jan Van Ravesteyn: A Dutch portrait and military painter, Jan Van Ravesteyn was born about 1572. He studied under Michael Mierevelt and began his career in Delft. Early in the seventeenth century he settled at the Hague and joined the Guild of St. Luke. Jan Van Ravesteyn was also a founding member of the Pictura Brotherhood (1656).
	Anthony Van Dyck and "The Iconography": The great age of portrait engraving took place in the early and mid seventeenth century. In France such remarkable portrait engravers as Robert Nanteuil and Antoine Masson achieved fame at least equal to the most highly regarded painters. In Belgium and Holland the division between painter and engraver/etcher was much less distinct. Rembrandt was as great an etcher as a painter and both Rubens and Van Dyck conducted a school of engravers under their close personal supervision. In the 1620's Peter Paul Rubens founded an engraver's school in Antwerp in order to render his paintings and drawings into copper. Such great engravers as Lucas Vorsterman (1595-1675), Boetius a Bolswert (1580-1633) and Paulus Pontius (1603-1658) formed the cornerstone of what was soon known as the 'School of Rubens'.
	At the age of nineteen Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp, 1599-1641) was admitted into the painter's Guild of Antwerp, as a Master. A year later he became the senior assistant to Rubens. A superb portraitist, Van Dyck became famous throughout Europe and later was appointed court painter to King James the First of England.
	Van Dyck was first introduced to both engraving and etching by Peter Paul Rubens. Around 1630 he began his most ambitious printmaking project to create a uniform series of engravings of famous contemporaries derived from his portraits. Van Dyck provided his engravers with extensive preparatory work, including drawings and oil sketches. He then corrected his engraver's proofs and even etched the outline features on some of the portraits. In the following years he designed and supervised about eighty such portrait engravings which were published individually by Martin van den Enden. His principal engravers included Paulus Pontius, Nicolaes Lauwers, Pieter de Jode, Lucas Vorsterman, Robert van Voerst and others. These wonderfully graceful portrait engravings were a high point of Baroque art and proved to be perhaps the most influential group of portraits in the history of printmaking.
	The engravings were first published separately by Martin van den Enden, with his name appearing in the address to the lower right. He did not print the plates in large editions and thus these earliest of impressions are very scarce. The Iconography did not appear as a completed set until four years after Van Dyck's death, in 1645. During this year Gillis Hendricx published a series of one hundred Van Dyck portrait engravings in three general categories; I, Princes, II, Scholars, and III, Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Patrons of Art. (Interestingly, portrayals of painters and engravers were placed on a level equal to nobility and scholars. Artists were deliberately portrayed as men of wealth, knowledge and stature.) Impressions from this first published set contain the Gillis Hendricx letters, 'G. H.' along the lower plate mark.
	The demand for portraits from The Iconography was so great that many subsequent editions were printed in the following decades. The final edition was in fact published as late as 1759 and many of the plates still survive in the Louvre. Detecting early from late impressions of portraits from The Iconography however is not difficult. With the deterioration of lines and contrasts, late impressions bear only a ghostly relationship to first edition printings. Secondly, Gillis Hendricx impressions were printed on a fine, laid paper with a distinct watermark of a Foolscap containing five points, four large bells and braided hair ( clearly seen in this impression on the verso). This watermark appears on paper used in both Antwerp and Holland between 1640 and 1660. Lastly, later impressions appear without the 'G. H.' along the lower plate-mark. This impression of Jan Van Ravesteyn bears the crisp lines of an early printing and the aforementioned watermark. Yet, as was common in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, a former owner of the engraving has cropped the paper to thread margins and eliminated the 'G. H.' mark. There is no doubt however that this original engraving is from the Gillis Hendricx edition of 1645.
Raisonne:	F. Wibiral, L'Iconographie d' Antonie Van Dyck, Leipzig, 1877.
	Third and final state, as published in the 1645 Hendricx edition.
Source:	Icones Principum Virorum Doctorum Chalcographorum Statuariorum Nec Non Amatorum Pictoriae Attis Numero Centum Ab Antonio van Dyck Pictore Ad Vivum Expressae Eivsque Sumptibus Aeri Incisae (The Iconography)
Size:	9 3/8 X 6 3/8 (Sizes in inches are approximate, height preceding width of plate-mark or image.)
	Matted With 100% Archival Materials
Buy Now	Price: $650.00 US
Condition:	Printed upon fine 17th century, hand-made, laid paper as published in Antwerp in 1645 by Gillis Hendricx. Signed in the plate by Pontius to the lower left. Containing the period foolscap watermark, as described. Cropped to the image by a previous owner, else a fine, early impression and in good condition throughout. Jan Van Ravesteyn represents a strong, original example of portrait engraving from the famous Iconography of Anthony Van Dyck.
Important Information:	The artist biographies, research and or information pertaining to all the original works of art posted on our pages has been written and designed by Greg & Connie Peters exclusively for our site, (www.artoftheprint.com). Please visit us regularly to view the latest artworks offered for sale. We will soon be posting an update of our most recent research and include the biographical and historical information pertaining to our next collection of original works of art created by artists throughout the centuries. We hope you found the information you were looking for and that it has been beneficial. Our Gallery, (Art of the Print / www.artoftheprint.com) guarantees the authenticity of every work of art we sell 100%. Full documentation and certification is provided. We offer a wide selection of international fine art dating from the early Renaissance to the contemporary art period.

Paulus Pontius (Antwerp, 1603 - 1658)
#	Image	Title & Artist	Medium	Date	Source	-
01-		Paulus Pontius, Calcographus Antwerpiae Engraved by Paulus Pontius designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Original Engraving	1645 (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp)	The Iconography	Sold
02.-		Joannes van Ravesteyn, Pictor Iconum Hagae Comitis (Jan van Ravesteyn) Engraved by Paulus Pontius designed by Anthony Van Dyck	Original Engraving	1645 (First Published Edition by Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp)	The Iconography