joris van son
Jan van Kessel the Elder or Jan van Kessel I was a Flemish painter active in Antwerp in the mid 17th century. A versatile artist he practised in many genres including studies of insects, floral still lifes, marines, river landscapes, paradise landscapes, allegorical compositions, scenes with animals and genre scenes. A scion of the Brueghel family many of his subjects took inspiration of the work of his grandfather Jan Brueghel the Elder as well as from the earlier generation of Flemish painters such as Daniel Seghers, Joris Hoefnagel and Frans Snyders. Van Kessel’s works were highly prized by his contemporaries and were collected by skilled artisans, wealthy merchants, nobles and foreign luminaries throughout Europe.
Joris-Karl Huysmans, real name Harles-Georges-Marie Huysmans, was a French writer and poet, the first president of the Goncourt Academy.
Huysmans' father was Dutch, and he always emphasized this fact. At the age of 20, the aspiring writer began working as an official in the French Ministry of the Interior, where he served all his life.
Huysmans received the greatest fame thanks to the novel À rebours ("Against Nature"). The main appeal of this writer's work lies in its autobiographical content. And his style is characterized by a wide vocabulary of the French language, a wealth of detailed and sensual descriptions, as well as sharp satirical wit. The novels are also notable for their encyclopedic documentation, ranging from a catalog of decadent Latin authors in À rebours to a discussion of the symbolism of Christian architecture in La Cathédrale.
In his work, Huysmans expresses a distaste for modern life and a deep pessimism, but in his writings one can trace the stages of intellectual life in late nineteenth-century France. Joris-Karl Huysmans was one of the earliest proponents of Impressionism. He was also a renowned literary critic and one of the founders and first president of the Goncourt Academy.
Jan Lievens was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and engraver of the Golden Age and a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp.
It is known that while still very young, at the age of twelve, Lievens already created skillful paintings that amazed art lovers of Leiden. He was later friendly with Rembrandt, shared a studio with him, and painted in a similar style. Lievens was also a court painter in England and elsewhere.
Jan Leavens created genre scenes, landscapes, ceremonial portraits and sketches on various themes, as well as religious and allegorical images, which were already highly valued during his lifetime.
Georg Flegel was a German painter, best known for his still-life works.
According to the RKD he was pupil of Lucas van Valckenborch in Linz during 1582-1592. In a period of about 30 years (c. 1600–1630), he produced 110 watercolor and oil pictures, mostly still-life images which often depicted tables set for meals and covered with food, flowers and the occasional animal.
Frans Hogenberg was a Flemish and German painter, engraver, and mapmaker. He is known for portraits and topographical views as well as historical allegories. He also produced scenes of contemporary historical events. Hogenberg was the author of graphic works, engravings of city views and maps of the first four volumes of the six-volume atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Description and drawings of the most famous cities in the world), published in 1570 by the Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius. Hogenberg's engravings are an invaluable source of information about urban development in medieval Europe.
Georg Braun was a German topographical geographer, cartographer and publisher.
Braun was the editor-in-chief of the Civitates orbis terrarum, a groundbreaking atlas of cities, one of the major cartographic achievements of the 16th century. It was the first comprehensive and detailed atlas, with plans of the world's famous cities and bird's-eye views, and became one of the best-selling works of the time.
The book was prepared by Georg Braun in collaboration with the Flemish engraver and cartographer Frans Hoogenberg. Braun, as editor-in-chief, acquired tables, hired artists, and wrote the texts. They drew on existing maps as well as maps based on drawings by the Antwerp artist Joris Hofnagel and his son Jacob. Other authors include Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569), Jacob van Deventer (c. 1505-1575), and more than a hundred other artists and engravers.
Simon Novellanus was a Dutch-born German artist, graphic artist and engraver who worked in Cologne in the second half of the 16th century.
He is known to have been a skilled engraver and collaborated with cartographer and engraver Franz Hogenberg in the production of books and atlases. Novellanus's sprawling, multi-layered landscapes are executed in a light and varied etching technique that creates intense light and atmosphere.