Portret van Maximilian Wilibald von Waldburg-Wolfegg

About this artwork

collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Art Historical Context

This elegant engraving, *Portret van Maximilianibald von Waldburg-Wolfegg*, captures the likeness of a prominent nobleman from the Walurg-Wolfegg family, a lineage of Swabian aristocracy in the Holy Roman Empire. Created by Andreas Kohl between 1634 and 1657, it reflects the era's fascination with portraiture among the elite, amid the turbulence of the Thirty Years' War. Kohl, a skilled engraver, immortalized Maximilian's poised features and attire, emphasizing status through fine lines and intricate details typical of 17th-century printmaking. Measuring just 192 mm high by 134 mm wide, this intimate-scale work highlights the engraving medium's revolutionary role: it allowed affordable reproduction and wide dissemination of aristocratic images, bridging courts and collectors across Europe. The technique—incising designs into a metal plate for inked impressions—demanded precision, lending Kohl's portrait a crisp, enduring clarity that outlasted fragile paintings. Bearing the collector's mark Lugt 2228, the print boasts a distinguished provenance, linking it to esteemed historical collections. For visitors, it offers a window into Baroque-era nobility, where such engravings served as visual calling cards of power and legacy.

About the Artist

Andreas Kohl · 1624–1657

Andreas Kohl (1624–1657) was a German engraver working in Nuremberg during the Baroque period whose brief career produced accomplished portrait engravings of his contemporaries. Born in Nuremberg in 1624 and dying there in 1657 at just thirty-three years old, Kohl's professional activity coincided with the latter part of the devastating Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and the early post-war period o...