NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Wenceslas Hollar

Wenzel (or Wenceslaus) Hollar (Vaclav Holar) (July 13, 1607 - March 28, 1677), Bohemian etcher, was born at Prague, and died in London, being buried at St Margaret's church, Westminster. July 13th is the 194th day (195th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 171 days remaining. ... Events January 20 - Tidal wave swept along the Bristol Channel, killing 2000 people. ... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in Leap years). ... Events First performance of Racines tragedy, Phèdre Sarah Churchill marries John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough Battle of Cassel, Philippe I of Orléans defeats William of Orange Mary II of England marries William of Orange English Statute of frauds is passed into law Battle of Landskrona Elias... Bohemia Historical map of Bohemia Bohemia is also a place in the State of New York in the United States of America: see Bohemia, New York. ... Prague (Praha in Czech) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ... The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster which contains Big Ben London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Westminster is the name of a city that covers much of central London, located to the west of the ancient City of London, and which has been the principal seat of government in England for more than nine hundred years. ...

His family was ruined by the capture of Prague in the Thirty Years' War, and young Hollar, who had been destined for the law, determined to become an artist. The earliest of his works that have come down to us are dated 1625 and 1626; they are small plates, and one of them is a copy of a "Virgin and Child" by Dürer, whose influence upon Hollar's work was always great. In 1627 he was at Frankfort, working under Matthew Merian, an etcher and engraver; thence he passed to Strassburg, and thence, in 1633, to Cologne. The victory of Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) The Thirty Years War was a conflict fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally in the Central European territory of the Holy Roman Empire, but also involving most of the major continental powers. ... Self-Portrait, 1493, Oil on Canvas Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6, 1528) was a German painter, wood carver, engraver, and mathematician. ... Copperplate engraving done 1628 by Matthäus Merian d. ...

It was there that he attracted the notice of the famous amateur Thomas, earl of Arundel, then on an embassy to the imperial court; and with him Hollar travelled to Vienna and Prague, and finally came in 1637 to England, destined to be his home for many years. Though he lived in the household of Lord Arundel, he seems to have worked not exclusively for him, but to have begun that slavery to the publishers which was afterwards the normal condition of his life. Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey and 1st Earl of Norfolk (7 July 1586 - 4 October 1646), was a prominent English courtier during the reigns of King James I and King Charles I but made his name as an art collector rather than a politician. ...

In his first year in England he made for Stent, the print-seller, the magnificent "View of Greenwich," nearly a yard long, and received thirty shillings for the plate, perhaps a twentieth part of what would now be paid for a single good impression. Afterwards we hear of his fixing the price of his work at fourpence an hour, and measuring his time by a sand-glass. The Civil War had its effect on his fortunes, but none on his industry. Lord Arundel left England in 1642, and Hollar passed into the service of the duke of York, taking with him a wife and two children. The shilling was a British coin first issued in 1548 for Henry VIII, although arguably the testoon issued about 1487 for Henry VII was the first shilling. ... The English Civil War (or Wars) refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, specifically to the first (1642–1645) and second (1648–1649) civil wars between the supporters of King Charles I and the supporters of... Charles I (19 November 1600–30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625, until his death. ...

With other royalist artists, notably Inigo Jones and Faithorne, he stood the long and eventful siege of Basing House; and as we have some hundred plates from his hand dated during the years 1643 and 1644 he must have turned his enforced leisure to good purpose. Taken prisoner, he escaped or was released, and joined Lord Arundel at Antwerp, and there he remained eight years, the prime of his working life, when he produced his finest plates of every kind, his noblest views, his miraculous "muffs" and "shells," and the superb portrait of the duke of York. In 1652 he returned to London, and lived for a time with Faithorne the engraver near Temple Bar. Inigo Jones, by Sir Anthony van Dyck Inigo Jones (July 15, 1573 - June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant English architect. ... The Cathedral of our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp)in the Handschoenmarkt, in the old part of Antwerp is the largest cathedral in the Low Countries and is home to a number of triptychs by the Belgian painter, Rubens. ... Temple Bar can refer to: Temple Bar in London, England. ...

During the following years were published many books which he illustrated: Ogilby's Virgil and Homer, Stapylton's Juvenal, and Dugdale's Warwickshire, St Paul's and Monasticon (part i.). The book-sellers continued to impose on the simple-minded foreigner, pretending to decline his work that he might still further reduce the wretched price he charged them. Nor did the Restoration improve his position. The court did nothing for him, and in the great plague he lost his young son, who, we are told, might have rivalled his father as an artist. John Ogilby (1600-1676) was a British writer and cartographer. ... Note: This article is about the Roman poet, who is the most famous person by this name. ... Sir William Dugdale (September 12, 1605 - February 10, 1686) was an English antiquary. ...

After the great fire he produced some of his famous "Views of London"; and it may have been the success of these plates which induced the king to send him, in 1668, to Tangier, to draw the town and forts. During his return to England occurred the desperate and successful engagement fought by his ship the "Mary Rose," under Captain Kempthorne, against seven Algerine men-of-war,--a brilliant affair which Hollar etched for Ogilby's Africa. The Great Fire of London was a major fire that swept through the City of London from September 2nd to September 5th, 1666, and resulted more or less in the destruction of the city. ... View toward the Mediterranean Tangier (in Berber and Arabic Tanja طنچة, in Spanish Tánger and in French Tanger) is a city of northern Morocco with a population of 350,000, or 550,000 including suburbs. ... The Mary Rose depicted on the Anthony Roll, a survey of Henry VIIIs navy, completed in 1546 The Mary Rose was a carrack of 78 guns (91 guns after 1536), built in Portsmouth, England, in 1509–1510, thought to be named after King Henry VIIIs sister Mary and...

He lived eight years after his return, still working for the booksellers, and retaining to the end his wonderful powers; witness the large plate of Edinburgh (dated 1670), one of the greatest of his works. He died in extreme poverty, his last recorded words being a request to the bailiffs that they would not carry away the bed on which he was dying. Edinburghs location in Scotland Edinburgh viewed from Arthurs Seat. ... A Bailiff in a United States courtroom Bailiff (from Late Latin bajulivus, adjectival form of bajulus) is a governor or custodian; cf. ...

Hollar's variety was boundless; his plates number some 2740, and include views, portraits, ships, religious subjects, heraldic subjects, landscapes, and still life in a hundred different forms. No one that ever lived has been able to represent fur, or shells, or a butterfly's wing as he has done. His architectural drawings, such as those of Antwerp and Strassburg cathedrals, and his views of towns, are mathematically exact, but they are pictures as well. He could reproduce the decorative works of other artists quite faultlessly, as in the famous chalice after Mantegna's drawing. His Theatrum mulierum and similar collections reproduce for us with literal truth the outward aspects of the people of his day; and his portraits, a branch of art in which he has been unfairly disparaged, are of extraordinary refinement and power. The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. ...

Almost complete collections of Hollar's works exist in the British Museum and in the library at Windsor Castle. Two admirable catalogues of his plates have been made, one in 1745 (2nd ed. 1759) by George Vertue, and one in 1853 by Parthey. The latter, published at Berlin, is a model of German thoroughness and accuracy. The main entrance to the British Museum The British Museum is one of the worlds largest and most important museums of ancient history. ... Windsor Castle is (along with Buckingham Palace in London and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh) one of the principal official residences of the British monarch, who always stays there on most weekends of the year, Easter and during Royal Ascot week (in June) at the nearby Ascot Racecourse; as well as... George Vertue (1684-1756) was a British engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period. ...

See also GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

See also