RUCKERS, Hans the Elder - b. ~1545 Mechelen, d. 1598 Antwerpen

Flemish harpsichord and virginal maker, member of the Ruckers family (also spelt: Ruckaert, Ruckaerts, Rucqueer, Rueckers, Ruekaerts, Ruijkers, Rukkers, Rycardt). The family probably originated in Germany. It based in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th century and its influence stretched well into the 18th and to the harpsichord revival of the 20th.

In 1575 Hans Ruckers the Elder married Adriana Cnaeps. He was a Catholic and had 11 children, two of which Joannes Ruckers (1578-1642) and Andreas (Andries) Ruckers I (1579-after 1645) became harpsichord makers, and his daughter Catharina married into the instrument-making Couchet family, ensuring a strong continuation of both dynasties. Hans Ruckers became a member of the Guild of St Luke in 1579, and a citizen of Antwerp in 1594; he lived very near the artist Rubens. He signed his instruments by working his initials into the rose. Instruments by him in existence today are virginals from the 1580s and 1590s now in Berlin, Bruges, New York, Paris and Yale University. He was also an organ builder, though none by him remains; he is known to have worked on the organs of St. Jacobskerk and Antwerp Cathedral.

Double virginal

This sumptuously painted virginal, the oldest extant work by Hans Ruckers the Elder, was made in Antwerp in 1581, when Spain dominated Flanders. Above the right keyboard are medallions of Philip II and his fourth wife, Anne of Austria. On the underside of the lid is a painted scene of a garden fete; the panel below the keyboards bears a Latin motto meaning “Music, sweet solace of labour.” The double virginal, which anticipates the double-manual harpsichord, consists of two instruments. When the higher-pitched “child” at the left is withdrawn from its compartment and placed above the “mother,” both can be played by one person.