JACOB MATHAM - DIANA DISCOVERS CALLISTO’S PREGNANCY - 1600

Subject: 17th Century Antique Print. Dutch Painters. Mannerism - Jacob Matham.

Technique: 1 chalcographic print. Engraving by Jacob Matham based on a drawing by Cornelis Cornelisz.

Publication: Circa 1600.

Dimensions: 25.5 x 19.5 cm [print], 47.7 x 41.5 cm [passe-partout].

Visual Description: Diana in her baths discovers that Callisto is a woman. Engraving by Matham. Inscription in the lower left corner: "CC[ornelius] invent J. Maetham schlp[sit]". Verses at the bottom of the engraving: "Montinagas (...) pregnans", signed by Franco Estius (with "HGoltz" written in ink above this signature).

Condition: Good impression. Short margins at the edge of the print.

Provenance: Engraving from the art collection of Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, 7th Marquis of Carpio and Eliche (1629 - 1687), Spanish nobleman, diplomat, and politician. He was the son of the also collector Luis de Haro and inherited a large repertoire of paintings from him, which he progressively expanded with works of great quality.

References: Illustrated Bartsch, Vol. IV, p. 84; Hollstein, vol. XI, p. 227.

Jacob Matham (Haarlem, October 15, 1571 - January 20, 1631), Dutch engraver and draftsman.

He was orphaned as a child, and in 1578 his mother remarried the engraver and painter Hendrick Goltzius, who adopted him and made him his apprentice. Married to Maria van Poelenburgh, sister of the engraver Simon van Poelenburgh, he was the father of Adriaen (1599-1660), Jan (1600-1648), Theodor (c. 1606-1676), and Cornelis (1608-1661), the first three also being engravers.

Matham specialized in reproductive engravings. As early as 1592, he engraved several scenes of the Parable of the Prodigal Son based on drawings by Karel van Mander. In 1603, a group of five engravings based on originals by Pieter Aertsen was dated. From 1611-15, he reproduced several paintings by Rubens. However, his most extensive (and problematic) production is probably the one he did under the influence of Goltzius, engraving designs by him. Many of these engravings bear the initials HG of the master, making it difficult to distinguish the authorship of each.

In 1613, the engraver Jan van de Velde II was his apprentice.