VORSTERMAN, Lucas

The engraving was made after a painting by Rubens.

Lucas Vorsterman was one of the best engravers working for Rubens. He engraved the Holy Family with St John and St Elizabeth after the design of Rubens.

Rubens from the very early on set about looking for copperplate engravers able to submerge themselves in his style and to reproduce the effects of his brushwork. As Cornelis Galle’s style was rather dry, Rubens turned to the engravers of the Goltzius school, Pieter Soutman, Willem Swanenburgh, Egbert van Panderen, Andriesz Stock and Jacob Matham. He supervised their work and directed the commercial exploitation of the business himself. The plates were made from monochromes specially prepared by him or his collaborators.

Lucas Vorsterman engraved about fourteen prints which represent the acme of Rubensian art in black and white. But at the end of two years, Rubens quarrelled with Vorsterman who even went so far as to threaten to kill him. Vorsterman was succeeded by his pupil Paulus Pontius, who accentuated the colourist tendency of his craft.

Nicolaas Rockox (1560-1640) was the burgomaster (mayor) of Antwerp. His fame is largely attributed to his friendship to Rubens and the commissions he gave to this artist. His 17th-century patrician is housing a fine collection of Flemish art.

Anthony Van Dyck, like Rubens, also collaborated with engravers. Two of his portraits of Rockox were engraved by Lucas Vorsterman and his pupil Paulus Pontius. Vorsterman based his portraits on a painting by Van Dyck portraying Rockox at the age of 65, as a humanist, antiquarian and numismatist. The Latin verses under the print are by Gevartius, and pay tribute to Rockox on his appointment as Burgomaster for a ninth term of office.

Johannes van Mildert (1588-1638) was a Flemish Baroque sculptor. His portrait was engraved for the series “Iconography” after a drawing by Anthony van Dyck.

Wenceslas Cobergher (c. 1560-1634) was a Flemish painter, architect and engineer. His portrait was engraved by Lucas Vorsterman after a drawing by Anthony van Dyck.

Hope (Spes) steers the straw-covered wagon of poverty (Penia); two donkeys, Stupidity (Stupiditas) and Laziness (Ignavia) and two oxen - Negligence (Negligentia) and Sloth (Pigritia) - pull it. Moderation (Moderatio), Diligence (Diligentia), Carefulness (Soliticitudo), and Labour (Labor) lead the horses and drive them. Like Wealth, poverty is also accompanied by good and evil forces: Industriousness (Industria), which hands out tools to the retinue, sits together with Experience (Usus), and Memory (Memoria) on the cart; behind Poverty, Misfortune (Infortunium) hands out thrashings. The text on the panel hanging from the tree ponders the vicissitudes of fate and the nature of wealth and poverty. Whereas the rich man should spend his life in delusion, in perpetual fear of a stroke of misfortune, the poor man should fear nothing and learn with industrious virtuousness to serve God.