Jacob Hoefnagel

Jacob Hoefnagel (also 'Jacobus', 'Jakob' or 'Jakub") (1573 in Antwerp – c.1632 in Hamburg), was a Flemish painter, printmaker, miniaturist, draftsman, art dealer, diplomat, merchant and politician. He was the son of the Flemish painter and miniaturist Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1601) who was a court painter to the dukes of Bavaria and Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. Jacob Hoefnagel himself became a court painter to Rudolf II and to the Swedish court.Jacob Hoefnagel
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History He is noted for his illustrations of natural history subjects as well as his portraits, topographical views, emblems and mythological works, which continue his father's style.

Life

Jacob Hoefnagel was the oldest son of Susanna van Onsem and Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1600) and was baptized in Antwerp on 25 December 1573. His father was a member of a rich family of merchants in Antwerp who had left his home country after the 1576 Sack of Antwerp, in which much of the family fortune was lost to plunder. His father had been working in the family business but had also learned to paint and draw. During his exile his father was employed as a court painter successively by the dukes of Bavaria and Emperor Rudolf II in Prague.Thea Vignau-Wilberg, ''Joris Hoefnagel, The Illuminator'', in: Lee Hendrix, Thea Vignau-Wilberg, ''Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta: A Sixteenth-Century Calligraphic Manuscript Inscribed by Georg Bocksay and Illuminated by Joris Hoefnagel'', Volume 1, Getty Publications, 13 Aug, 1992, p. 15-28 Unlike his father who was not trained professionally as an artist but had started out as a merchant in the family business in diamonds and luxury goods, Jacob was given the opportunity to study art under a master in Antwerp.Thea Vignau-Wilberg, Neues zu Jacob Hoefnagel, in: Studia Rudolphina no. 10, 2010, p. 196-211 He was registered as a pupil of Abraham Liesaert in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1582. He then started a peripatetic life.

He travelled via Munich to Frankfurt am Main where he joined his father at the latest in 1592. His father had by then remarried after the death of Jacob's mother. It was during this time that Jacob published a series of etchings copied from drawings by his father. It is likely he left Frankfurt in 1594 following the persecution of the Calvinists in that city. He was in Regensburg in 1594 and from 1600 in Prague. He was appointed the court painter to Rudolf II in Prague on 7 November 1602, a position he held until 1613.Jacob Hoefnagel (1575–ca. 1630), Orpheus Charming the Animals
at the Morgan Library & Museum From 1602 he also spent time in Vienna where he married in 1605 Anna Muys, the daughter of the Dutch court architect Anthoni Muys (Anton de Mois). This was already his third marriage. Throughout his life Jacob Hoefnagel would marry five times. He was in Rome in 1605. He is recorded in Prague in 1609 and again in Rome in 1610.

A census in 1612 of people living at the court, conducted at the time Rudolf II died, includes the name of Jacob Hoefnagel, followed by the title 'Contrafetter' which means portrait painter.Jacob Hoefnagel
at De Jonckheere Genève He experienced financial difficulties, which he attributed to the court's failure to pay his salary as a court painter. As a consequence he left the imperial service at the end of February 1612. Jacob Hoefnagel was later that year reported as living in Vienna. He returned to Prague by 1613. He was citizen of the Malá Strana in Prague between 1614 and 1617. In 1614 he married his fourth wife. In 1616, he finally received the overdue salary of five hundred thousand guilders which the imperial court owed him. Despite this payment he was experiencing financial difficulties in 1617. In Prague he belonged to a circle of Flemish and Dutch merchants, artists and scholars, some of whom were Reformed, with close ties to the court of Rudolf II. He was a diplomat at the court at a time when Prague played a pivotal role in European affairs.

During the Thirty Years' War which started in 1618, he took the side of the protestant Winter King Frederick V of the Palatinate against the catholic Habsburg dynasty. He was appointed as the official agent of the Bohemian estates to the Dutch Republic in 1618 and resided in the Dutch Republic from 1618 to 1620. He had the right contacts for the position as he was the nephew of the Dutch poet and politician Constantijn Huygens, who had married his aunt Susanna Hoefnagel. Huygens was secretary to the Dutch Stadtholder Maurice, Prince of Orange.

In 1620 Hoefnagels was again a resident in Prague. He was accused by the authorities of fraudulently dealing with certain financial matter. Hoefnagel was convicted in absentia in a political process of embezzlement of funds. All his goods were confiscated and, according to some sources, he was sentenced to death. He could, however, flee.Hoefnagel, Jakob
on Austria-Forum

He spent time in Scandinavia including Stockholm and Göteborg. In Göteborg, he holds various high level positions: from 1622 to 1626 he is city counselor, from 1624 to 1627 president of the court of justice and in July 1624 he was appointed as one of the three burgomasters.Jacob Hoefnagel, attributed to (1575-1630), "Konung Gustaf II Adolf" och "Drottning Maria Eleonora"
at Bukowsi In 1624 the Swedish king Gustav Adolf visited Göteborg. In November 1624, the painter is rewarded with a golden chain with a miniature portrait of the king. He is recorded on 30 April 1624 in the Swedish court accounts as a portrait painter. He was in Altona (Hamburg) in 1626 where he married for the fifth and last time. Details about his last years are not available. His wife is recorded as a widow in Hamburg in 1633.

Work

Jacob Hoefnagel worked in various media and formats and is known for portraits, still lifes, mythological, scientific and topographical works, miniatures and emblems executed in oil, water colour, gouache and as engravings.

Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii

His first important work was the ''Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii'', which he published in 1592 in Frankfurt. The book is a collection of 48 engravings of plants, insects and small animals shown ''ad vivum''. It is divided in four parts of twelve plates (each with separate frontispiece), made after designs by his father Joris Hoefnagel and engraved by Jacob who was only 19 years old at the time of publication. The Italian scholar Filippo Buonanni asserted in 1691 that these engravings are the first published instance of the use of the microscope. However, this assertion of Buonanni is still contested. As the quality of the engravings varies, it is assumed that some of the works were made by members of the family De Bry who resided in Frankfurt. The prints in the collections were intended not solely as representations of the real world. They also carried a religious meaning as they encouraged the contemplation of god's plan of creation. Like contemporary emblem books each print carried a motto typically referring to god's interference in the world. The prints of the book were used as models by other artists and the Hoefnagel motifs were copied until the 19th century. It has been argued that the prints stood at the basis of the typical Dutch genre of still lifes with flowers, shells and insects.

Painting

Unlike his father who preferred drawing, Jacob was an accomplished oil painter who produced works in the Prague Mannerist style popularised by artists such as Hans von Aachen and Bartholomeus Spranger

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