Biography of engravers and cartographers.Old masters index U to Z

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Vaugondy, Family

Gilles Robert de Vaugondy ( 1688-1766), also known as Le Sieur or Monsieur Robert and Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723-1786), were leading geographers in Paris in the 18th century. Gilles and Didier Robert De Vaugondy produced their maps and terrestrial globes working together as father and son. The Vaugondy’s were descended from the Nicolas Sanson d'Abbeville family through Sanson's grandson. The Vaugondy’s inherited much of Sanson's cartographic material which they revised. Both served as royal geographers of France . The Vaugondy's credited their sources, which has greatly benefited the study of the history of cartography during that period.

Visscher, Family

Claes J.Visscher 1587-1652
Nicolas Visscher I 1618-79
Nicolas Visscher II 1649-1702
Elizabeth Visscher d.1726

For nearly a century the members of the Visscher family were important art dealers and map publishers in Amsterdam . Founded by C. J.Visscher (1587-1652), the business was continued by his son N. Visscher ( 1618-1679), cartographer and publisher of Amsterdam and grandson Nicolas Visscher the Younger (1649 - 1702). Both of hem issued a considerable number of atlases. The firm was continued after Nicolas II’s death by his widow Elizabeth Visscher, who issued an Atlas Minor, Atlas Major and 'De Stoel des oorlogs'. In 1717 most of the plates passed into the hands of Petrus Schenk.

Wierix or Wierx Brothers

The three Wierix brothers were among the most prolific of the numerous engravers active in Antwerp in the second half of the sixteenth and in the early seventeenth centuries. Johannes (c. 1549-c. 1618), Antonius II (c. 1555/59-1604) and their youngest brother Hieronymus (1553-1619) where real talents in engraving Hieromymus and his brother Johannes started with unbelievable accurate copperplates engravings after Dürer. The 3 of them produced many works and it is not always clear who made what when it is about not signed pieces. Hieronymous Wierix is best known for his engravings of devotional subjects, allegories and portraits of saints and church fathers and belong to the finest of their time. A great number of prints were published by the firm of Plantin in Antwerp . In 1593 'Evangelicae Historiae Imagines' (Illustatrations of Gospel Stories) was published with illustrations of the Wierx brothers, Maarten de Vos a.o. In 1594 and 1595it was published again in larger volumes, entitled Adnotationes et Meditationes in Evangelia ('Notes and Meditations on the Gospels'), republished several times up to 1707.

Zampieri, ( Domenichino) Domenico (1581-1641)

Domenichino was born at Bologna as a son of a shoemaker and there initially studied under Denis Calvaert. He left Bologna for Rome in 1602 and became one of the most talented apprentices to emerge from Annibale’Carraci’s supervision.
In addition to assisting Annibale with completion of his frescoes in the Galleria Farnese he painted his own frescoes in the Loggia del Giardino of the Palazzo Farnes (c. 1603-04) and obtained further commissions in Rome. His most important project of the first decade was decoration of the Cappella dei Santissimi Fondatori in the medieval basilica of the Abbey of Grottaferrata (1608-10) a few miles outside of Rome, where Odoardo Farnese was the titular abbot. Following Annibale Carracci's death in 1609, Annibale's Bolognese pupils, foremost Domenichino, Albani, Reni and Lanfranco, became the leading painters in Rome. One of Domenichino's masterpieces, his frescoes of ‘Scenes of the Life of Saint Cecilia’ in the Polet Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi, was commissioned in 1612 and completed in 1615. Concurrently he painted his first and most celebrated altarpiece ‘The Last Communion of St. Jerome' for the church of San Girolamo della Carità (signed and dated, 1614). It subsequently would be judged as being comparable to Raphael's great 'Transfiguration' and even as ‘the best painting in the world’. From 1617 until 1621, Domenichino was absent from Rome, working in Bologna and at Fano. In 1621 Domenichino returned to Rome. In spite of his activity in Rome, Domenichino decided to leave the city in 1631 to take up the most prestigious and very lucrative commission in Naples; the decoration of the Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro of the Cathedral. His ‘Scenes from the Life of San Gennaro’ occupied him for the rest of his life. He died in 1641.

Zannoni, Rizzi (1736-1814)

Giovanni Antonio Bartolomeo Rizzi Zannoni was one of the leading cartographers of the late 18th century. He also was an astronomer, surveyor and mathematician. He worked in Venice and was also engaged by the governments of Austria and France to produce maps. He was a member of the Cosmographic Society of Göttingen in Germany . Rizzi Zannoni is known for his world atlas which was published in 1762 as 'Atlas Moderne' by Lattré. He published his ‘Atlante Marittimo delle due Sicile’ in 1793. Rizzi Zannoni died in 1814.

Zuccari, Federico (1542.1543 – 1609)

Federico Zuccari, also known as Federigo Zuccaro was an Italian Mannerist painter and architect, active both in Italy and abroad. His documented career as a painter began in 1550, when he moved to Rome to work under his brother Taddeo. He went on to complete decorations for Pius IV and help complete the fresco decorations at the Farnese. Zuccari was recalled to Rome by Pope Gregory XIII to continue in the Pauline chapel of the Vatican . He visited Brussels and there he made a series of cartoons for the tapestry-weavers. In 1574 he passed over to England , where he received commissions to paint the portrait of Queen Elizabeth and other members of nobility. ). In 1585 he accepted an offer by Philips II of Spain to decorate the new Escorial . Zuccari was raised to the rank of cavalier not long before his death in 1609.

ISCRA Quality antique maps and prints from the Netherlands

ISCRA
Quality antique maps and prints from the Netherlands