Veues de Gunterstein - titlepage Joseph Mulder

Joseph Mulder (1658,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

– 1742, Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age printmaker, known as a "renowned engraver". An engraving by Mulder illustrates the title page of the 1700 edition, published in

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, of ''

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems The ''Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems'' (''Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo'') is a 1632 Italian-language book by Galileo Galilei comparing the Copernican system with the traditional Ptolemaic system. It was tran ...

'' by Galileo. This engraving shows

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

and

Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulated ...

. Mulder worked abroad as well, and produced an engraving of Vienna from a bird's-eye view, in nine prints each measuring one by two feet. Along with Pieter Sluyter, he did many of the etchings for the classic book ''Insects of Surinam'' (''Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium'') based on field drawings done by

Maria Sibylla Merian Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 164713 January 1717) was a German naturalist and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to observe insects directly. Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss M ...

. This book, published in 1726, has been described as "magnificent" and included early scientific study of the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies. The book ''Figures de la Bible a La Haye'', published in 1728 in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, has an etching by Mulder portraying Adam and Eve as "happy, childlike lovers" with Genesis 2:25 inscribed in six languages: German, Dutch, Hebrew, Latin, English and French. The English translation is "Adam and Eve were both naked and were not ashamed." Mulder's etchings are actively collected today. According to his contemporary, art historian Arnold Houbraken, he was a good etcher who had been the pupil of the Amsterdam painter Hendrick Bogaert in 1672.Joseph Mulder Biography
in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the

Digital library for Dutch literature The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, second ...

Houbraken reported that Mulder claimed to have played a similar prank on a baby as

Adriaen Brouwer Adriaen Brouwer (, in Oudenaarde – January 1638, in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the first half of the 17th century.

had done. In this anecdote, he had been rocking a baby on his lap. The baby soiled him because its diaper slipped off. He laid the baby on the floor and defecated on it. At that moment, the baby's mother walked in and asked what he was doing. He replied, "het kind heeft my bescheeten, en ik beschyt het weer, dus beschyten wy malkander" (the child shat on me, and now I shat on it, and so we're shitting on each other). According to the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

, he was an engraver and printmaker who had been a pupil of Bogaert and also followed

Romeyn de Hooghe Romeyn de Hooghe (bapt. 10 September 1645 – 10 June 1708) was a late Dutch Baroque painter, sculptor, engraver and caricaturist. Biography He was born in Amsterdam, and was a skilled etcher, draughtsman, painter, sculptor and medalis ...

.Joseph Mulder
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

He made the engravings for the book ''Veues de Gunterstein'' for the rich widow Madame de Gunterstein et de Thienhoven (Magdalena Poulle) ca. 1690.Catalog entry for Veues de Gunterstein
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References

External links

on Artnet {{DEFAULTSORT:Mulder, Joseph 1658 births 1720s deaths Dutch Golden Age printmakers Artists from Amsterdam