JEGHER, Christoffel
(b. 1596 Antwerpen, d. 1653 Antwerpen)
Flemish woodcutter. From 1625 to 1643 he worked for the Antwerp publishing house, Plantin-Moretus, producing ornamental initials, book illustrations, vignettes and similar book decorations. Jegher’s woodcuts appear in the Plantin Missals of 1626, 1628 and 1632, and in the Breviaries of 1627, 1631, 1632, 1636 and 1642. He also completed nearly 50 woodcuts for Juan Eusebio Nieremberg’s ‘Historia naturae’, published in 1635.
Jegher made prints after designs by Peter Paul Rubens from about 1632 until 1640. Although Rubens had employed engravers to reproduce and propagate his designs from about 1609, he did not utilize woodcut until later. Jegher produced nine woodcuts, including two chiaroscuros, after his images.
