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 clearly the frontispiece to a larger set, presumably of pastoral landscapes. It is a pastroral idyll, a herder leaning on a stick, addressing a peasant woman resting in the lower right. Two cowss and two sheep are nearby and beyond there is a glorious, hilly, Italianate landscape. A foreground mound in the centre is inscribed with Berchem's and Dankerts' names. The former is the 'inventor', who created the original design and/or drawing, the later etched the print and 'excudit', i.e. published it.
Sources:
Wikipedia, 'Dancker Danckerts', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancker_Danckerts
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art April 2019