Peter Scriverius
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 40.5 × 29.5 cm (16 × 11 5/8 in.); Sheet: 51 × 37 cm (20 1/8 × 14 5/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
217892
Art Historical Context
Cornelis Visscher's *Peter Scriverius* (9) is a striking engraving that captures the likeness of the esteemed Dutch historian and poet Pieter Scriverius (157–1660), a key figure in the Republic's intellectual circles. Created during the Dutch Golden Age, this portrait exemplifies the era's fascination with commemorating scholars and humanists through print, making elite imagery accessible beyond paintings reserved for the wealthy. As an engraving on laid paper, the work showcases Visscher's mastery of the intaglio technique, where fine lines are incised into a copper plate, inked, and pressed...
About the Artist
Cornelis Visscher · 1629–1658
Cornelis Visscher (1629–1658) was a Dutch Golden Age engraver, draughtsman, and printmaker born in Haarlem, the brother of fellow artists Jan de Visscher and Lambert Visscher. Little is known of his early life, but he studied under the Haarlem painter and engraver Pieter Claesz Soutman, with whom he closely collaborated from 1649 to 1650, producing numerous portrait engravings for Soutman's print ...