Landscapes in Germany and Switzerland. Plate 16. Heidelberg.

Matthäus Merian der Ältere (or "Matthew", "the Elder", or "Sr."; 1593–1650) was a Swiss-born printmaker who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house. He was a member of the patrician Basel Merian family.

Born in Basel, Merian learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zürich. He next worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Oppenheim, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry, who was the son of the renowned engraver and traveller Theodor de Bry.

In 1617, Merian married Maria Magdalena de Bry, daughter of the publisher, and was for a time associated with the de Bry publishing house, eventually taking it over on Theodor's death in 1623. In 1620, when Oppenheim was destroyed by fire during the Spanish occupation, they moved back to Basel, but three years later returned to Germany, this time to Frankfurt. In 1626 Merian became a citizen of Frankfurt and could henceforth work as an independent publisher there - he did so for most of the rest of his life. The Merians had four daughters and three sons, including Matthäus Merian the Younger. Maria Magdalena de Bry died in 1645 and the following year Matthäus married Johanna Catharina Hein. Five years later, Matthäus died, leaving his wife with two small children, one of whom Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) later became a pioneering naturalist and illustrator.

Early in his life, Merian had created detailed town plans in his unique style, e.g. a plan of Basel (1615) and a plan of Paris (1615). With Martin Zeiler (1589-1661), a German geographer, and later (c. 1640) with his own son, Matthäus Merian II (1621-1687), he produced a series of Topographia. The 21-volume set was collectively known as the Topographia Germaniae. It includes numerous town plans and views, as well as maps of most countries and a popular World Map, re-issued in many editions. He also took over and completed the later parts and editions of the Grand Voyages and Petits Voyages, originally started by de Bry in 1590.

Merian's work inspired the Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna by Erik Dahlberg. The German travel magazine Merian is named after him. He was also noted for the finesse of his alchemical illustrations. After Matthäus's death, his sons Matthäus Jr. and Caspar took over the publishing house. They continued publishing the Topographia Germaniae and the Theatrum Europaeum under the name Merian Erben (i.e. Merian Heirs).

This print is plate 16 in the series Landscapes in Germany and Switzerland, one of Merian's early publications as an independent etcher, printer and publisher in Basel. It depicts the famous German university town of Heidelberg, with its gothic Church of the Holy Spirit dominating the background and, in front of it, the river Neckar, with several boats, both moored and sailing. An element of quirkiness is introduced in the left foreground, with a very focussed looking middle-aged, kneeling, bearded man about to lower a large stone into a hole in the ground.

See: Wikipedia, 'Matthäus Merian', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matth%C3%A4us_Merian

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   April 2019