Aegidius Sadeler II
Born Antwerp, 1570; Died Prague, 1629.
Engraver, draughtsman and painter, son of (2) Aegidius Sadeler I. Around 1579 he went with his uncle (1) Jan Sadeler I to Cologne and later, c. 1588, to Munich. None of the Sadelers ever definitely returned to their home district. In 1585 Aegidius was listed as a pupil of Jan Sadeler I in the records of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. In the first half of his career Aegidius regularly engraved the work of Hans von Aachen, Christoph Schwarz, Peter Candid and Marten de Vos. Among the most important engravings are the series of scenes from the New Testament, the Salus generi humani (1590; Hollstein, nos 18–30), the Nativity (1588; Hollstein, no. 32), the Holy Family with St Anne and Two Angels (Hollstein, no. 79) after von Aachen, the Crucifixion between the Two Thieves (1590; Hollstein, no. 53) after Schwarz, the series of the Four Fathers of the Church (Hollstein, nos 99–102) after Candid and the series of the Story of David (also engraved by Aegidius Sadeler I; Hollstein, nos 2–17) after de Vos.
In 1593 Aegidius briefly visited Rome, where he was in contact with Jan Speeckaert, after whom he engraved a series with the Life of the Virgin (Hollstein, nos 81–6). The following year he was back in Munich. The prints of this period show the influence of the engraving technique of Hendrick Goltzius, as can be seen in the Entombment (Hollstein, no. 55) after Federico Barocci, and the Sinner in Hell (1595; Hollstein, no. 42) and the Flagellation (1594; Hollstein, no. 45), both after Palma Giovane. In 1595 Aegidius II returned to Italy with Jan I’s family and Raphael I and visited Verona (1596), Venice (1597), Florence, Bologna, Rome and Naples. During these years he engraved the work of Paul Bril, Jan Breughel I, Stradanus, Denys Calvaert, Raphael, Titian, Parmigianino, Tintoretto and Barocci, among others.
Aegidius II probably went to Prague in 1597. He worked successively at the courts of Rudolf II, Matthias and Ferdinand II as imperial engraver. In 1601 Emperor Rudolf II granted him a licence to publish his prints, just as he had to Raphael I and Justus Sadeler. Later, in 1614 and 1615, Aegidius II asked Matthias for the same privilege to publish his prints and those of Justus. In 1621 Aegidius joined the Prague painters’ guild. One year later Joachim von Sandrart became his pupil. In Prague, Aegidius worked in the Mannerist style then popular with his court contemporaries Bartholomäus Spranger, von Aachen, Roelandt Savery, Joris Hoefnagel, Hans Vredeman de Vries, Jan Muller and Lucas Kilian. At the start of his career at the imperial court, Aegidius concentrated on reproducing drawings by Dürer, including the Head of the 12-year-old Christ (1598; Hollstein, no. 39), the Descent from the Cross (Hollstein, no. 49), the Virgin and Child in a Landscape (Hollstein, no. 72) and the Head of an Apostle Wearing a Hood (Hollstein, no. 87). Then he focused his attention on portraiture, which forms an important part of his Prague oeuvre. Many of the official portraits contain allegorical allusions. As an engraver, Aegidius was admired mainly for his delicate representation of his sitters and his ability to penetrate their psychology. His portraits of élite sitters earned him the nickname the ‘Phoenix of Engraving’. There are also various landscapes with Aegidius’s signature that were probably done in his studio, including the series of Tyrolean Landscapes (Hollstein, nos 219–24, 225–30, 237–40, 241–6) after Roelandt Savery, the Twelve Months (1607; Hollstein, nos 129–41) and the Four Seasons (Hollstein, nos 142–5) after Pieter Stevens and the Vestigi della antichità de Roma, Tivoli, Pozzvolo et altri luochi (1606; Hollstein, nos 151–201) after Jan Breughel I and Stevens. The prints that Aegidius made at the end of his career, including the portraits of Roman emperors and empresses, are less good in quality; it is assumed that he preferred painting at the end of his life. Sandrart, who went to Prague in 1622, mentioned grisailles that Aegidius had painted, but so far no paintings by him have been definitely identified.
Christine van Mulders. "Sadeler." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T074900pg4 (accessed March 7, 2012).
