HOLLAR, Wenceslaus - b. 1607 Praha, d. 1677 London - WGA

HOLLAR, Wenceslaus

(b. 1607 Praha, d. 1677 London)

Bohemian etcher, illustrator and draughtsman, active in Germany, Flanders and England. He was an outstanding draughtsman and etcher of landscapes and topographical views and as an etcher also excelled in still-life subjects, best exemplified by his prints of shells and of muffs dating from the 1640s. Both fields show his instinct for direct and accurate recording. However, much of his illustrative work, enormously varied in subject-matter, is of no better than workmanlike quality and has always tended to undermine his reputation. Although Hollar spent some 32 of his 52 years of working life in England and signed himself with the anglicized form Wenceslaus, he always considered himself Bohemian, appending to his signature throughout his career the name of his native country or city.

Antwerp Cathedral

The church of Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe (Our Lady) in Antwerp is the largest Gothic church in the Low Countries, it rivals some of France’s famous thirteenth-century cathedrals. Its elevation to the status of a cathedral occurred in 1559.

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Democritus and Heraclitus

Democritus (c. 460 - c. 370 B.C.) and Heraclitus (c. 540 - c. 475 B.C.) are known as the ‘laughing and crying philosophers.’

Democritus, a Greek philosopher, born at Abdera in Thrace, was known as the laughing philosopher because he found amusement in the folly of mankind. (The citizens of Abdera were proverbially stupid.) His philosophic system was contrasted with that of the earlier Heraclitus of Ephesus, who was known as the ‘Dark’ or ‘Obscure’ and was reputed to be melancholic. They were linked as a contrasting pair by Seneca, by Juvenal and others. Florentine humanists, to whom such classical texts were well-known used the pair to support the view that a cheerful demeanour was proper to a philosopher.

The two philosophers are widely represented in European art of the Renaissance and Baroque period, either in one picture or as companion pieces.

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Giorgione's Self-Portrait as David

This is an engraving after Giorgione. The ledge was a regular feature of the portraits of Giovanni Bellini, it served both to set the figure in space and to provide a firm base for a bust-length composition. Giorgione also adopted the device of the foreground ledge in this self-portrait. He rejected the near-frontality of Bellini’s portraiture; by placing his body at right angles to the plane, and turning his head to confront the viewer, he created an image that was both more spontaneous and more arresting.

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