WIERIX, ANTON[IE], AFTER MAERTEN DE VOS

[ HISTORY OF THE MACCABEES & STORY OF SAMPSON] [AMSTERDAM?] CLAES JANSZ VISSCHER, [C 1640.]

      Oblong folio. 230 x 310mm. Image size 202 x 285mm. 10 engraved prints in fine condition. The plates include the complete set of 8 prints illustrating the biblical story of the Maccabees and the first 2 of the series illustrating the biblical Samson. The plates are by Anton Wierix after Maerten de Vos and are recut or just issued by Claes Jansz Visscher.Maarten de Vos was born in Antwerp in 1532 and died there in 1603. His father Pieter de Vos was also a painter and he studied first with him and then with Frans Floris, one of the first to bring Mannerism to Antwerp. In 1551 de Vos left Floris and went to Rome, where he studied the works of Michelangelo and then to Venice where he became first the pupil then the friend and collaborator of Tintoretto. He was highly successful in Italy, executing commissions for the Medici among others. In 1558 he returned to Antwerp where he worked as a painter executing portraits and large commissions for churches. He executed some engravings, but he was far more prolific as a source of drawings that were then engraved and published by others Wierix was one of three brothers and was a designer and engraver born in Antwerp or Amsterdam in 1555. "...his larger prints exhibit more freedom and facility.."[Bryant]Claes Jansz Vissher (1586-1652) print maker and publisher. Alvin 90-1; 125-132.