item details
Nicolaes Berchem the Elder; artist
Overview
The short-lived Dancker Danckerts (1634-1666) was a well known Dutch engraver and publisher. Danckerts was the son of Cornelis Danckerts of Amsterdam and Anne Minne of Leiden. The Danckerts belonged to a large Amsterdam family of engravers, cartographers, print-sellers and publishers, who also included Dancker's brother, Justus. Danckerts was known for both his etchings of paintings, maps and his publications; one of his favoured artists, who provided the original artwork for this etching, was the well-known landscape painter Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683). Danckerts' work had taken him to Venice by the time of his death. His works are widely collected and feature in numerous museum, library and archive collections around the world.
This etching is the frontispiece of a series of oblong landscapes etched by Danckerts after Berchem. The title is in French, probably to appeal to that market, even though both artists were Amsterdam based. It translates loosely as 'Various pretty locations, enriched by people and beasts by C. P. [sic] Berchem in Amsterdam'. This is what at one time would have been deemed a thoroughly 'gay' pastoral scene, a landscape with a shepherd seated on a horned cow, playing the flute, and a young woman dancing beside him. Other cattle and a dog surround the happy couple. In the romantic Italian setting, a far cry from Amsterdam, there is an old ruin covered with foliage in the foreground, with steep terrain and a more distant range of peaks beyond.
Sources:
British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3220634&partId=1&searchTex t=berchem+danckerts&page=1
Wikipedia, 'Dancker Danckerts', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancker_Danckerts
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art April 2019