Jan Vermeyen (before 1559 – 1606) was a goldsmith of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Mannerism Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

. Jan Vermeyen was born in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, the son of a Flemish painter

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, or Jan Mayo, or Barbalonga (c. 1504 – 1559) was a Dutch Northern Renaissance painter. Biography Based on his will, rediscovered in 1998, Vermeyen was born in Beverwijk in 1504 (possibly 1503 or 1505). According to ...

in Brussels. He was educated in goldsmithery and started his career between 1580 - 1590 in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, where he married, too. In 1592 he was inscribed as a member of the goldsmith' guild in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

on the Main. From 1600 he lived and worked in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, Lesser Town, district of St. Thomas church. He was one of the favorite court artists of

Emperor Rudolph II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the Hous ...

. According to inventories he made more than 10 existing masterworks. They are usually dishes from exotic organic materials as

bezoar A bezoar is a mass often found trapped in the gastrointestinal system, though it can occur in other locations. A pseudobezoar is an indigestible object introduced intentionally into the digestive system. There are several varieties of bezoar, s ...

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

horn, or from colorful precious stones (cut by the Prague workshop of Ottavio Miseroni) set with cameos (by Alessandro Masnago), all mounted in gold, for Emperor's ''Kunstkammer'' of the

Prague Castle Prague Castle ( cs, Pražský hrad; ) is a castle complex in Prague 1 Municipality within Prague, Czech Republic, built in the 9th century. It is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. The castle was a seat of power for kin ...

. Today some of them are exhibited in

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. His most famous work is the golden private crown of the emperor, which came later into use as

Imperial Crown of Austria The Imperial Crown of Austria (german: Österreichische Kaiserkrone) is a crown formerly in use by the monarchs of the Habsburg monarchy. The crown was originally made in 1602 in Prague by Jan Vermeyen as the personal crown of Holy Roman Emperor Ru ...

, is shown in the Treasury of the Hofburg Castle. He died in

Literature

* Rudolf DISTELBERGER, Die Kunstkammerstücke, in: ''Prag um 1600, Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II.''. Katalog der Ausstellung in Essen und Wien, Freren 1988, pp. 449 - 452. * Dana STEHLÍKOVÁ: ''Encyklopedie českého zlatnictví, stříbrnictví a klenotnictví'' (Encyclopaedia of the Czech goldsmithwork, silwersmithwork and jewellery). Prague Libri 2003, p. 526; . 16th-century births 1606 deaths Flemish artists (before 1830) Dutch goldsmiths Artists from Brussels {{Belgium-artist-stub