Nine Offerings for Jan Piet Filedt Kok || Pictores, Adeste! Hieronymus Cock Recommending His Print Series

Pictores, Adeste! Hieronymus Cock Recommending His Print SeriesAuthor(s): Boudewijn Bakker and Michael HoyleSource: Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 33, No. 1/2, NineOfferings for Jan Piet Filedt Kok (2007/2008), pp. 53-66Published by: Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische PublicatiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20355350 .

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53

Pictores, adeste! Hieronymus Cock recommending his print series*

Boudewijn Bakker

Shortly after 1550, print publishing in Antwerp entered on a period of unexpected growth in scale and variety. The person mainly responsible for this sudden explo sion of productivity was Hieronymus Cock. Between

1550 and 1570 he published thousands of prints span ning almost the entire range of contemporary visual cul

ture, from biblical stories to decorative frame designs, the Vitruvian order of columns to contemporary village

scenes, and from complex humanist allegories to the let

ters of the alphabet. In some areas he was even a true

trendsetter. His output evidently met a huge public de mand for images of anything that could be depicted.1

Cock is best known to art historians as the publisher of the Large landscapes series of 1555-56 after designs by Pieter Bruegel, and of the two anonymous series of

Small landscapes with views near Antwerp of 1559-61 (figs. 1, 2). The latter were copied and published by

Claes Jansz Visscher 50 years later, and were almost cer

tainly the inspiration for his own landscape series, such as the well-known Plaisante plaetsen.2 As a result, the

i Title print of the Lineamenta series (Small landscapes I), 1559

* Jan Piet and I became friends back in 1966, the year in which I began

my studies at the Kunsthistorisch Instituut in Johannes Vermeerstraat in Amsterdam. Both of us were fascinated by sixteenth-century prints, and the subject I chose for my graduate thesis was Hieronymus Cock as the publisher of prints of ruins. I am glad, then, to be able to present Jan Piet with this short article as a memento of our early years. I am

grateful to the editors of Simiolus for their encouraging comments on an earlier version. The words Pictures, adestel are taken from Cock's

print series Coenotaphia (Appendix nr. 9). The article was translated from the Dutch by Michael Hoyle.

1 K. Oberhuber (ed.), exhib. cat. Die Kunst der Graphik IV. Zwi schen Renaissance und Barock: das Zeitalter von Bruegel und Beilange,

Werke aus dem Besitz der Albertina, Vienna (Albertina) & New York

1968; T. Riggs, Hieronymus Cock: printmaker and publisher, New York

1977; D. Landau and P. Parshall, The Renaissance print 1470-1550, New Haven & London 1994, esp. pp. 347-58; J. van der Stock, Printing images in Antwerp: the introduction of printmaking in a city, fifteenth cen

tury to 1585, Rotterdam 1998.

2 Hollstein 38, p. 144, nrs. 292-317. For Visscher's landscape series and their art-historical and cultural context see W. Gibson, Pleasant

places: the rustic landscape from Bruegel to Ruisdael, Berkeley 2000, pp. 27-49 (with earlier literature).



54 BOUDEWIJN BAKKER

2 Village scene near Antwerp. From the Lineamenta series

anonymous artist of c. 1560 is often regarded as the first to choose the landscape of the northern Netherlands as a

subject for realistic, independent works of art, long be fore the genre began to flourish in Dutch painting.3

One wonders about the reasons that the artist and

Cock had for creating and publishing the series. What kind of public did Cock have in mind for the prints, and what was their place in his publishing activities? I will

try to answer those questions in this article with the aid of the titles that Cock gave to the Small landscapes and to similar print series in his list.4

Cock published his graphic works in the form of in

dependent sheets or in series, which were either loose or

bound together. Some of the series consist of a set num

ber of prints determined by the iconographie tradition or by the nature of the subject: the four evangelists, the twelve months, the seven liberal arts, or the key mo

ments in a biblical story. Others comprise an arbitrary

number of scenes of a single type: sailing ships, tombs, Roman antiquities or exercises in perspective.

This article will deal with the single type, for Cock

gave some of those suites a separate title print in which

he describes and extols the virtues of the series, a few of which also have a separate sheet dedicating the prints to some prominent figure. Most of these title prints are

beautifully decorated and have calligraphed titles which

give the entire series a special cachet. It is possible that other series also had a title print originally that is now no

longer known.

Cock was not the only publisher to issue fine title

prints with a series. Others who did so were his immedi ate competitors Gerard de Jode and Hans Liefrinck. The terms that are used in their titles are closely related to Cock's.5 He, however, was by far the largest publisher of his day, and was in many respects the leader who set the standard. As a result, his products are largely repre

3 W. Stechow, Dutch landscape painting in the seventeenth century, London 1966, pp. 15-19; E. Spickernagel, Die Descendenz der "Kleinen

Landschaften ": Studien zur Entwicklung einer Form des niederl?ndischen

Landschaftsbildes vor Pieter Bruegel (diss.), M?nster 1970; D. Freed

berg, Dutch landscape prints of the seventeenth century, London 1981, pp. 21-22; Gibson, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 1-26. C. Levesque, Journey through landscape in seventeenth-century Holland: the Haarlem print series and

Dutch identity, University Park (PA) 1994, places the beginning of the

topographical landscape in Dutch landscape painting with the Large landscapes, without even mentioning the Small landscapes.

4 This article is an expanded version of a passage in B. Bakker and H. Leeflang, exhib. cat. Nederland naar 7 leven: landschapsprenten uitde Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) & Zwolle

i993,pp. io-ii.

5 See van der Stock, op. cit. (note i), passim.



Pictores, adeste! Hieronymus Cock recommending his print series 55

3 Title print of the Monimenta series (Roman ruins), 1551

4 The ruins of the Septizonium of Emperor Septimius Severus. From the Monimenta series, 1551



56 BOUDEWIJN BAKKER

sentative of the entire print publishing business in

Antwerp.

The title pages of 13 of Cock's series have survived.6 The title texts are transcribed in a slightly simplified form in the Appendix, together with a modern transla tion.7 Most of the titles are in Latin or Dutch, and some

in both languages.8 The prime aim of the Latin titles was to appeal to an international public, but a carefully

composed title, sometimes incorporating a poem, could

give a series added weight as a product of humanist cul ture. Cock, though, was not a highly educated humanist but an enthusiastic rhetorician who had to make do with his schoolboy Latin, a grammar, a dictionary and an an

thology of quotations. It was only for more ambitious editions that he evidently called on the services of a hu

manist.9 As a result, most of the title texts are clumsy

and wooden. The sentences often do not run smoothly,

and some terms were clearly translated from Dutch as

well as possible. Mistakes were also made because the

engraver did not know the language. However, Cock's texts are interesting precisely because of their un

schooled directness, for they unwittingly give us a

glimpse of the painters' jargon employed by him and his

circle, as well as saying something about his intentions as a publisher. That last point is important, because

apart from these title texts there is not a single surviving

written document from his hand. In this short article I will be focusing on the nature of Cock's target group.10

"in pictorum usum": for the benefit OF PAINTERS

The series can be divided roughly into two groups: five with landscapes and eight with designs in the realms of

perspective, architecture and the applied arts. In addi

tion to the two Small landscapes series (Appendix nrs. 3, 4; figs. 1, 2), the first group also comprises two series of Roman ruins (nrs. 1,5; figs. 3,4) and a series of detailed

village scenes and mountain landscapes with biblical

and other narratives designed by Matthijs Cock (nr. 2). The second group contains two famous publications

by the painter and architect Hans Vredeman de Vries: the Scenographiae (examples of interiors and outdoor

settings in mathematical perspective) of 1560 (nr. 8; figs. 5, 6), and volume 1 of his "Book of orders" (exam ples of architectonic elements in accordance with the

five classical orders) of 1565 (nr. 10). A third series after de Vries consists of tomb designs (nr. 9), while the other five contain ornaments in an antique manner after de

signs by Cornelis Floris (nrs. 6, 7; fig. 7), Jacob Floris

(nrs. 11,12; fig. 8) and an anonymous artist (nr. 13). If one turns to the functions of these series it emerges

that the titles of the second group are the most informa tive. Let us first take the Scenographiae (nr. 8). The title states that it was being published "for the benefit of artists and of others who take pleasure in things of this kind" (fig. 1). Cock was evidently aiming primarily at

painters of historical scenes who needed beautiful, mod ern architectural settings for the actions they wanted to

depict.11 Given the nature of the subject, it is only logi cal that painters were the primary target group. Howev

er, in most of the other architecture and ornament se

ries, which at first sight would appear to have been

intended solely for architects, sculptors and practition ers of the applied arts, Cock also expressly mentions

painters as prospective purchasers, and usually they come first in the list. The first series o?Grotissen by Cor nelis Floris (nr. 6) was "made to be used by all those who love and practice the art," that art being defined in the second series (nr. 7) as "sculptors in wood and in pre

cious stone, painters and all other artists." Here the

painters follow the sculptors. The anonymous Mores ken

(nr. 13), however, is recommended as being "extraordi

narily useful for painters, goldsmiths, sculptors, damask weavers and similar craftsmen, and for those who work

with the needle [embroiderers]." Now with ornament

6 The Small landscapes are now regarded as a single series dating from 1559, with a second title print of 1561. See H. Nalis, The new

Hollstein, Dutch Z5 Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450-1700, The Van Doetecum family, 4 vols., Rotterdam 1998, vol. 1, pp. 94-135, nrs. 118-61.

7 The translations into Dutch were done by Daan den Hengst and

the author. 8 Some French, German and Italian versions have also survived.

9 The dedication to Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle in the first se

ries with Roman ruins (nr. 1) is accompanied by a quatrain written by

the Antwerp humanist Cornelius Graphaeus. io In a later article I intend discussing a few topoi from the vocabu

lary of sixteenth-century painters as reflected in title texts by Cock and his contemporaries, particularly the terms "veranderingh / varietas," "naer 't leven / ad vivum," and "schilderachtig / pictorius."

ii For examples of this manner of working see H. Borggrefe, T.

Fusenig and B. Uppenkamp (eds.), exhib. cat. Tussen stadspaleizen en

luchtkastelen: Hans Vredeman de Vries en de Renaissance, Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone K?nsten) & Ghent 2002, passim.



Pictores, adestef Hieronymus Cock recommending his print series 57

5 Title print of the Scenographiae series after Hans Vredeman de Vries, 1561

?SCENOGRAPHIAE, flue

PERSPECTIVAE (vt iEdificia, hoc modo ad opricam excitata,Pi&orum vul*

gusv?cat) pulchcrrimxviginti fele&i?Timaramfabricarum??

pi&ore Ioanne Vreedmanno Frifio ingcnio?i?fime excogita* xx & defignatx: &a Hicronymo Cockin gratiam pi?tarum

aliorumijuchuiufmodi rebus feoble&antium hisvenuftiffimis

typisinlucem aeditae. non fine regio privilegio, ne

quis in omnib.fuacMaieftatisr^ionibushas tabellas imprimere aut alibi impreffas vcndere,aut aliquo modo di?lrahereaudeat?

\m f?M<P <RJ ?M E' 8 ?^ *AWJE %JS 4UpreslabourfenueueauQ^eyens,enlamaifona^HiermjmMCocl^

tAuecTriuilegedu%ojfourJix<iM.

15?*\ -, ; .-,*

6 Perspective design from the

Scenographiae series, showing the publisher and his wife by their

imaginary residence, 1561



58 BOUDEWIJN BAKKER

7 Title print of the Grotissen I series (Ornaments I), after Cornelis

Floris, 1556

8 Title print of the Compartimenta I series (Frames I), after Jacob Floris, 1566

series of this kind one could perhaps think of the painted decorations of real buildings, or of decorations within a

painted scene, and only then of applications in architec

ture, sculpture and the applied arts.12 But even the de

cidedly architectonic "Book of orders" (nr. 10) is ad dressed first and foremost to painters, who come before

"sculptors in wood and stone, cabinetmakers, stained

glass artists and all lovers of art," with architects not

even getting a mention. Even the Coenotaphia (Tombs; nr. 9) is presented first to painters, who take precedence over "sculptors, architects and stonemasons."

Most of the titles of the landscape series have far less

to say about the target group. The Roman Monimenta

and the Reliquiae (nrs. i, 5) make no mention of the pro posed purchasers, and nor do the Small landscapes (nrs. 3, 4). The Adumbrationes after Matthijs Cock (nr. 2), though, is very specific. The Latin text presents the se ries solely as a publication "for the general [i.e. unlimit

ed] use of painters." The title may be explicit about the

purchasers Cock hoped to attract, but at the same time it raises another question: why specifically "general use"?

What was the special importance to Cock's painter col

leagues of this, to our eyes, rather unexceptional series

of landscape compositions with their inconspicuous and

12 See ibid., pp. 234-76, for the use of printed decorative designs by panel painters, fresco painters, frame makers, cabinetmakers, intarsia

workers, gold and silversmiths, and faienciers.




rather arbitrary historical Staffage? People evidently thought otherwise in those days. Haifa century later, in

his discussion of Cock's etched work, Karel van Mander

only mentions the 12 Adumbrationes after Matthijs, "which are still admired by everyone." He gives the fol

lowing reason for that approval: 'He [Matthijs] was also the first who began to make landscapes in an improved

manner, with more variations in the new Italian or an

tique way.'13 It is certainly true that Matthijs Cock was one of the first Netherlandish artists of the 1540s to suc

ceed in composing extensive landscapes of the 'world

landscape' type which did not have a limitless number of vanishing points in the manner of Patinir, but just one. He did so by adopting the perspective methods of

contemporary Italian landscape artists (although van

Mander evidently thought he was following the exam

ple of the ancients). Matthijs Cock showed that one

could come up with far more "variations," in the sense

of different kinds of composition, using this method rather than Patinir's, in which the world stretched out

before the viewer like a kind of endless map. There was

every reason, then, to bring this new type of landscape and its potential to the attention of other artists by pub lishing it in printed form.14

The Dutch title of the Adumbrationes foresaw a

broader target group, and commended the series as be

ing "most suitable for painters and other lovers of the arts." Here Cock made the same distinction as in the

Scenographiae (nr. 8), for it too was "for the benefit of artists and of others who take pleasure in things of this kind." Who did Cock have in mind with his "others"?

When one looks at the Scenographiae one would think of

everyone, painter or not, who was interested in perspec

tive. The term "suitable" ("bequaem"), however, seems

to indicate that Cock was aiming specifically at practi tioners of the arts, at artists who were not painters, such

as printmakers.15 Other titles, too, speak of "all others who love and practice the art" (nr. 6) "painters... and all lovers of art" (nr. 10). Once again, it is not entirely clear whom Cock had in mind, but it seems highly likely that he was aiming primarily at practicing artists who were

motivated by a love of their profession. In the sixteenth

century, after all, the words "kunst" (art) and "ars" still referred solely to the art of making, and not to the re

sulting works of art.

Yet apart from painters and other practitioners of the

visual arts, Cock may indeed have been thinking of non

professional art lovers when he used the term "liefheb bers" as well. The difference between the noncommittal art lover and the artist who loves his profession is toned down considerably in the terminology used by Cock, if not eliminated. The painter who is driven by the love of his profession and the lover of the arts who happens to

paint are here almost merged into a single category. Such a person is not someone who works with his hands but is literally an amateur, a gentleman artist who does

not need to live from his art. If Cock indeed did that de

liberately, which seems likely, it would fit in well with the endeavor of sixteenth-century painters to raise their social status from that of manual worker to the level of the scholar and the humanist author.16 And en passant,

in this context the term suggests that a fully trained

13 See K. van Mander, The lives of the illustrious Netherlandish and German painters, from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. H. Miedema, 6 vols., Doornspijk 1994-99, v?l- J> P- 1%1

14 Cock was probably encouraged to do so by Matthijs's teacher, Lambert Lombard. Dominicus Lampsonius wrote of Lombard that,

following Raphael's example, he was keen to make his inventions avail

able to less gifted colleagues, which is why he had them published as

prints. Lampsonius goes on to say that Lombard's initiative was adopt ed by Antwerp printmakers, and it is true that most of the prints after

Lombard's work were published by Hieronymus Cock; see Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 18-19.

15 His encouragement certainly had consequences, for there are

known copies of at least five prints from the 1558 series, several of them

by the Italian Angelo Falconetti. See Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), cat. nrs. 39

(Cock), 40 (Falconetti), 44 (Falconetti?), 46, 48 (Falconetti), 50

("FF,) 16 The painters were supported in this by other rhetoricians. Mar

cus van Vaernewijck, in his book about the history of the Low Coun

tries, gives a lengthy description of painting in classical times "to demonstrate in what high esteem painting, sculpture and architecture were once held" ("...om te toonen in hoe gro?te agting de schilder beeldhouw- en bouwkunde eertyds geweest zyn"). He also praises "the

painter of the Lamb of God''' as being at least the equal of Apelles, "who was considered the most skillful painter in the world. He [Apelles] was

the first learned painter, and said that it was impossible to become a

painter without an understanding of mathematics and land surveying" ("de schilder van Het Lam Gods [...] die voor den kunstigsten schilder der wereld gehouden wierd. Hy was den eersten geleerden schilder, en

zeyde dat het onmogelyk was schilder te wezen zonder de cyfer-konst en landmeting te verstaen"). See M. van Vaernewyck, De historie van

Belgis, 2 vols., Ghent 1829, vol. 1, pp. 224 and 203 respectively. Do

minicus Lampsonius also propagated painting in his Effigies, which was published in 1572 by Cock's widow. See D. Lampsonius, Pictorum

aliquot celebrium Germaniae inf?rions effigies, una cum doctissimis D.

Lampsonii... elogiis, Antwerp 1572, and J. Puraye (ed.), Dominique

Lampson: "Les effigies des peintres c?l?bres des Pays-Bas" Brussels 1956.



6o BOUDEWIJN BAKKER

painter is in fact zpictor universalis, the preeminent visu

al artist who as such rises above his non-painting fellow artists.17 One superb example of such a universal painter was Cock's colleague Hans Vredeman de Vries, in whose company Cock proudly presents himself as a

painter in the Scenographiae (nr. 8).lS Cock must have attached considerable value to the ti

tle of "painter," and it is remarkable how much impor tance he attached to characterizing himself as such. He had trained as a painter, like his father Jan and brother

Matthijs, and it was as a painter that he was admitted to

the guild in 1546/47.IQ However, it is unlikely that he

painted for very long. Van Mander is clearly disdainful when he says that although Cock was "very inventive in

landscape" as an etcher, he abandoned the profession of

painting and became an art dealer and print publisher.20 Van Mander considered it admirable if a painter became rich from his work, but evidently not if he did so from the work of others. It seems likely that Cock, in order to head off this kind of criticism from colleagues, did

everything he could to stress his artistic background and his role as creative 'art director' in the preparation and

production of his publications. One glaring example of this is provided by the Adumbrationes (nr. 2). He omit ted Matthijs's name in the title print and put himself forward as the one who had drawn ('delineatae'), etched

and published the landscapes, whereas in fact he was

only the etcher and publisher, and perhaps also the per son who had prepared the model drawings before repro duction. In the Dutch version he calls himself the de

signer: "presented in print and made by Hieronymus Cock, painter." Much earlier than this, in the dedication to chancellor Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle of the

Praecipua monimenta series of 1551 (nr. 1), he called himself "pictor, typograph[us]." The title of the second series of ruins of 1562 (nr. 5) gives the publisher's name

as "Hieronymus Cock piktor", as was done in the Per

spectivae after Vredeman de Vries (nr. 8) and the Com

pertimenta 1after Frans Floris (nr. 11). Cock evidently delighted in presenting himself as a

painter pure and simple in these titles, and repeatedly stressed his close ties with the great maecenas Antoine de Granvelle. In addition, he paraded his more ambi tious print publications as an act of comradeship to

wards his artist friends, especially painters, who should be grateful to him for his "liberality," for after all it was

he, as the publisher, who bore the expenses (nr. 9), just as Granvelle had done for the publication of the Moni menta series (nr. i).21

"ad veri imitationem": landscapes for artists

But for whom were the series intended in which there is not a single allusion to their use by others? This applies to the Roman ruins series in particular (nrs. 1, 5), and to the two Small landscapes series (nrs. 3, 4). In the case of the Monimenta of 1551 (nr. 1), the prints were repro

ductions of drawings made in Rome. Cock certainly made some of the drawn designs, probably after sketch

es he had made in Rome himself, and possibly after sketches by others as well.22 Cock's Roman etchings are

very reminiscent of drawings of ruins made by Maarten van Heemskerck and other artists of his circle as pre served in the two Berlin sketchbooks and in other al bums of drawings by usually anonymous masters.23 One

notes, though, that those drawings almost always show

the subject from a slightly different angle, which indi cates that most of them are not copies but studies of the

same subject by other artists.

These views must have been very popular with

painters, for they took them back to the north and later

incorporated them in narrative scenes with a classical

landscape setting. They were kept in portfolios in artists'

17 See B. Bakker, Landschap en wereldbeeld van Van Eyck tot Rem

brandt, Bussum 2004, pp. 252-53, for Karel van Mander's high opinion of the "universal painter."

18 In the dedication to Granvelle.

19 Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), p. 27; van der Stock, op. cit. (note 1), p. 272.

20 Van Mander, op. cit. (note 13), p. 186. 21 Granvelle had borne the entire cost of the series of depictions of

the Baths of Diocletian after drawings by Sebastiaan van Noyen (1558), including the money for van Noyen's trip to Rome. See Nalis, op. cit.

(note 6), vol. 1, pp. 44-63, nrs. 54-80.

22 Some of these models have survived. One of the prints has the half-deleted date "i54[6?]," which would seem to indicate that Cock had turned one of his own studies drawn in Rome into a print. No di rect preliminary drawings by other artists have been found, but Cock

may have used sketches by other artists who had been to Rome as his models. See Riggs, op. cit. (note i), pp. 237-38, nrs. D2-D4; p. 412, add. to cat. nr. D4.

23 For some prints, Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 257-63, refers to re lated drawings by Heemskerck and anonymous artists in the two Berlin albums.




workshops along with drawings by other masters, as was

done with the two sketchbooks in Berlin mentioned above. In other words, they were not finished composi

tions that could be used as models in their entirety, like the prints after Matthijs Cock, but collections of motifs

that could be put together in different combinations as

elements in the landscape background of a narrative scene. A good example of this is Heemskerck's lost

painting, St Jerome in a landscape with ruins of 1547, of

which Cock made a print in 1552 as a finished composi tion.24

It is gradually becoming clear that Cock's intention in

publishing the prints of Roman ruins, in which he was

evidently supported by Granvelle, was to contribute to

the formation of a repertoire of motifs for other artists who were unable to study the remains of classical antiq

uity in Rome at first hand.25 They could use the printed ruins in narrative scenes or allegories that required a

classical context. Cock had himself demonstrated such a

use when he employed his own collection of classical

motifs for the backgrounds of his liberal arts series of

1550, which he designed together with Cornelis Flo

ris.26 Other artists did so as well. No one less than Paolo Veronese used several of Cock's Roman ruin prints in his murals in the Villa Maser in the V?neto. In 1561 the

north Italian Battista Pittoni made a series of reversed

copies.27 A second series of copies after Cock's prints was made by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, one of the

etchers of the School of Fontainebleau.28 Cock had found a hole in the market.

Hieronymus Cock was not the first major print pub

lisher, nor was he the first publisher of architectonic or

landscape series. He had been preceded in the 1540s by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau and other Fontainebleau

masters, who etched and published decorative and land

scape motifs. In Rome, Antonio Salamanca was already

issuing prints with classical Roman buildings in the ear

ly 1530s, and for some years the same had been done by the Rome-domiciled Frenchman Antoine Lafr?ry, with

whom Salamanca entered into an association in 1553.29

Cock's work, however, was very different from the Ro

man and Parisian publications. While Salamanca and

Lafr?ry restricted themselves to the topography of indi vidual buildings, with the emphasis on the architecture, Cock satisfied the taste and interest of his fellow coun

trymen by concentrating on the landscape aspects of di

lapidated Rome.30 He emphasized this in the title print of the Monimenta (nr. 1) with a fitting poem by Cor nelius Graphaeus.31 And although the masters of Fontainebleau etched landscapes with and without ru

ins, they were always their own inventions.32 What Cock

published was something entirely new: Roman ruin

landscapes from life. It is clear from the title print of the 1551 series (nr. 1 )

that he attached great importance to this aspect. The most striking thing about this text is that the element of careful imitation is referred to twice. The views were not only "true to life" but were also deliberately intend ed for imitating reality ("ad veri imitationem"). This

probably means that Cock wanted to imitate reality when he was making his drawings, and was now putting

the results at the disposal of other artists who wanted to

24 Hollstein 4, p. 189, nr. 427; Riggs, op. cit., note 1, p. 279, nr. A51,

fig. 54. For the painting see R. Grosshans, Maerten van Heemskerck: die

Gem?lde, Berlin 1980, cat. nr. 57, who also reproduces the print, fig.

87a. 25 Cf. the series with the measurements and depictions of the Baths

of Diocletian (see note 21). 26 Hollstein 4, p. 184, nrs. 48-57; Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 267

69, nrs. 26-35. 27 See A.R. Turner, The vision of landscape in Renaissance Italy,

Princeton 1966, p. 205, and K. Oberhuber, "Hieronymus Cock, Bat

tista Pittoni und Paolo Veronese in Villa Maser," in T. Buddensieg and

M. Winner (eds.), Munuscula discipulorum: Kunsthistorische Studien

Hans Kauffmann zum 70. Geburtstag, 1966, Berlin 1968, pp. 207-23,

esp. pp. 207. Vincenzo Scamozzi's Discorsi sopra l'antichit? di Roma was

published in 1582. It included Pittoni's copies after Cock's Monimenta.

Girolamo Porro wrote in the introduction that these "drawings of ruins

have until now been able to serve mainly [as models] for those painters who take pleasure in inventing landscapes in their works" ("disegni di

ruine .... ? questo tempo hanno potuto principalmente servir? ? quei

pittori, che di fingere paesi nelle loro opere si dilettano"). However, ac

cording to Porro they could also be very useful to architects, provided

they were accompanied by expert commentaries. 28 H. de Geymuller, Les Du Cerceau, leur vie et leur oeuvre, Paris

1887, pp. 299-300. 29 Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 15-16. 30 On Salamanca and Lafr?ry see M. Bury, The print in Italy 1550

1620, London 2001.

31 "Barbaricus furor, annorumque horrenda vorago, / Sic Orbis

Reginam, illam, lachrimabile, Romam / Vastarunt, fatis nimirum, ur

gentibus: ecquae / Servandis riliquis [= reliquis] Usquam fiducia reg nis?" ("Thus the fury of the barbarians and the horrifying maelstrom of

time destroy Rome, that queen of the world, under the pressure of fate.

How doleful! Is there any confidence at all that the surviving remains of

realms will be preserved somewhere else?"). 32 See H. Zerner, L'?cole de Fontainebleau: gravures, Paris 1969.



02 BOUDEWIJN BAKKER

depict Roman reality but were unable to do so from their own observations.

By far the most famous of the other landscape series

published by Cock are the 12 Large landscapes of

1554/55 after Pieter Bruegel.33 They have no joint title and are not numbered, but they are nevertheless regard ed as a homogeneous series because of their similar size,

subject matter and treatment. Given the close relation

ship with the Adumbrationes after Matthijs, Cock was

probably eyeing the same groups of customer: fellow

painters, in any event, and then a more general public of

art lovers. The same applies to the two comparable se

ries of landscapes which did not have title prints: one

with biblical narratives after Lucas Gassel, the other without narratives after Hans Bol.34

Finally there are the two series of small landscapes, the Lineamenta of 1559 (nr. 3) and the Icones of 1561 (nr. 4). As with the series of ruins, this one did not contain

"arrangements of landscapes," that is to say detailed

compositions constructed from different landscape ele ments spread over various levels and "with fine histories inserted as part of the composition," but a large number

of prints of a far more modest size, each with a single subject: "various village dwellings, farms, fields, roads and the like." The "various animals" and people with which the scenes were "adorned" are disproportionately small so as not to detract from the view of the main sub

ject.35 In this respect, too, the small landscapes look not

so much like the large landscapes as the ruins series.

One can only conclude that the small landscapes, like the ruins series (as is announced in so many words in the

title print) were intended as repertoires of separate mo

tifs from which the artist inventor could choose when

constructing a more ambitious composition. Their in

tended destination was thus in principle the same as that of the various series after the Floris brothers and Hans Vredeman de Vries.

conclusion The analysis of these 13 title texts yields a few conclusions that are not spectacular but which do

clarify our picture of Hieronymus Cock as a publisher. In the first place, he presents his landscape and relat

ed series as working material for painters, and they were

also understood and used as such.36 "Working material"

covers such things as models in various stages of com

pletion, from individual motifs (ruins, farmhouses, or

naments), by way of larger architectural and landscape compositions without a narrative, to completely fin

ished 'proto-paintings in print.'

Secondly, he demonstrates in all sorts of ways that he wishes to regard his publishing house as an activity de rived from and dependent on his profession as a painter.

Moreover, as a prosperous painter-publisher he does his

best to position himself socially as the equal of human

ists, poets and wealthy art lovers.

Thirdly, the function of the motif series within Cock's list as outlined above makes the Small landscapes less exceptional. It is difficult to continue regarding them as isolated, extremely early forerunners of the au

tonomous landscape without a specific narrative content

that became the leading genre in Dutch painting after 1600.37 It is true that there are no known direct uses of

Cock's prints in surviving paintings, but there is a writ ten indication that they were intended to serve that pur

pose long after Cock's death. When Philips Galle pub lished the series with a new title print in 1601, he did so,

33 N.M. Orenstein (ed.), exhib. cat. Pieter Bruegel the Elder: draw

ings and prints, Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) & New Haven 2001, pp. 120 21.

34 For Bol see Hollstein 3, p. 50, nrs. 7-18; Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), p. 312, nr. 4; Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 2, pp. 55-63, nrs. 221-32. For

Gassel see Hollstein 7, p. 89, nrs. 1-4; Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), p. 336, nr.

103; Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 2, pp. 112-15,nrs- 29I-95 35 It is possible that "beestkens" was a slip of the pen for

"bootskens," figures. 36 Gibson, op. cit, (note 2), p. 13, says of a sketch in the Errera

sketchbook: "this sketch, however, was intended, not as an indepen dent work of art, but as part of a repertoire of various landscape motifs,

presumably to be used in larger compositions." However, he does not

extend this function to the Small landscapes. For drawings of this type see also S. Houtekeete, "Van stad en land: het beeld van Brabant in de

vroege topografische tekenkunst," in V. van de Kerckhof et al., exhib. cat. Met passer en pens?el: Br?ssel en het oude hertogdom Brabant in beeld, Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone K?nsten van Belgi?) & Tournai 2000, pp. 47-57.

37 Cock's initiative was later followed by other publishers, among them Hans van Luyk in 1575-80 with a series of 24 views of locations near Brussels by Hans Collaert, probably after designs by Hans Bol; see van de Kerckhof ?? al., op. cit. (note 36), pp. 206-07, and an unknown

publisher around 15 80-1600 who issued a series of views in the neigh borhood of Antwerp by Adriaen Collaert after designs by Jacob Grim

mer; see Hollstein 4, p. 206, nrs. 547-58, and Hollstein 8, p. 180, nrs. 1

12).



Pictores, adestel Hieronymus Cock recommending his print series 63

according to the text, "for the benefit of painters."38 Claes Jansz Visscher repeated that in his copied reissue 0fl6l2.39

Cock's "books with village dwellings" ("dorpshuys boecken") rapidly found their way to print collectors? artists as well as others.40 It is quite possible that they stimulated interest among colleagues in the pictorial

possibilities of landscape as a more or less independent genre. But that is an effect that the original makers and

publishers could not have foreseen.

STADSARCHIEF

AMSTERDAM

Appendix

The titles of print series published by Hieronymus Cock that have separate extant frontispieces

i. Roman ruins (Monimenta), by Hieronymus Cock after drawings by him and others, frontispiece and 24

plates, 1551

Hollstein 4, pp. 180-83, nrs. 22-47; Riggs? ?P- cit. (note

1) pp. 256-65, nrs. 1-25

Title:

Praecipua aliquot Romanae antiquitatis ruinarum moni

menta [= ruinae monimentorum praecipuorum?], vivis

prospectibus, ad veri imitationem affabre d?sign?t a... per

Hiero. Coq...

(Some important monumental ruins from Roman antiq uity, skillfully depicted by Hieronymus Cock in views true to life, for the purpose of imitating reality)

2. Landscapes with events from ancient history (Adumbrationes), dedicated to Antoine Perrenot (later Cardinal Granvelle), by Hieronymus Cock after

Matthijs Cock, frontispiece and 12/13 plates, 1558

Hollstein 4, pp. 177-79, nrs. 8-21,184, nrs. 24-35; Riggs,

op. cit. (note 1), pp. 273-79,nrs- 38-50

Title: Variae variarum regionum typographicae adumbrationes in

publicum pictorum usum a Hieronimo Cock delineatae in aes incisae et aeditae [= editae] (Various printed designs of different regions, drawn, etched in copper and published by Hieronymus Cock for general use of painters)

Veelderleye ordinantien van lantschappen, met fyne histo rien daer in gheordineert, uut den ouden ende niewen testa

mente, ende sommighe lustighe Poeteryen, seer bequaem voer Schilders, ende andere liefhebbers der consten: Nu eerst niew in de printe ghebracht, ende ghemaect by Ieronymus Cock Schilder.... 1558.

(Manifold landscape compositions containing fine his tories from the Old and New Testaments and some

pleasant poetic fictions, most suitable for painters and other lovers of the arts. Now first presented in print and made by Hieronymus Cock, painter... 1558)

3. Small landscapes I (Lineamenta), by Jan or Lucas van Doetecum after an unknown artist, frontispiece and

(combined with nr. 4) 22 plates with 44 scenes, first

part, 1559

38 "Regiones et villae rusticae... in Pictorum gratiam artifici?se de

pictae," see Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 1, p. 111.

39 Hollstein 38, pp. 144-48, nrs. 292-317. 40 Christophe Plantin used the terms "dorpshuysboecken," "livres

de maisons de villages" and "livres de fermes" in his administration for

bound series of the Small landscapes', see Gibson, op. cit. (note 2), p. 20

and note 55.



64 BOUDEWIJN BAKKER

Hollstein 4, p. 187, nrs. 164-214; Riggs, op. cit. (note 1),

p. 370, nr. 231; Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 1, pp. 94-135,

nrs. 118-61

Title:

Multifariarum casularum ruriumque lineamenta curi?se ad

vivum expressa

(Delineations of buildings and landscapes of every kind, diligently depicted from life)

Vele ende seerfraeye gheleghentheden van diversche Dorps

huysinghen, Hoeven, Velden, Strafen ende dyer ghelijcken, met alderhande Beestkens verciert. Al te samen gheconter

feyt naer dleven, ende meest rontom Antwerpen ghelegen

sijnde. Nu eerst niewe ghedruct ende uut laten gaen by Hie

ronymus Cock 1559...

(Many and very attractive locations of various village dwellings, farms, fields, roads and the like, adorned with animals of every kind. All portrayed from life, most

of them situated near Antwerp. Now printed and pub lished for the first time by Hieronymus Cock 1559...)

4. Small landscapes II (Icones), by Jan or Lucas van

Doetecum after an unknown artist, unknown number of

plates, sequel to nr. 3, with new frontispiece, 1561


p. 370, nr. 232; Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 1, pp. 94-135,

nrs. 118-61

Title: Praediorum villarum et rusticarum casularum icones ele

gantissimae ad vivum in aere deformatae libro secundo.

1561. Hieronymus Cock excudebat...

(Most refined depictions of estates, country houses and

village dwellings, depicted from life in copper, second

part. Printed by Hieronymus Cock)

5. Roman ruins (Reliquiae), by an unknown artist, frontispiece and 20 plates, 1562


pp. 299-305, nrs. 110-30

Title:

Operum antiquorum Romanorum hinc inde per diversas

Europae regiones reliquias ac minis [= ruinas] saeculis om

nibus suspiciendas non minus ver? quam pulcherrime defor matas libellus hie novus continet. Hieronymus Cock piktor Anverpianus excudebat... 1562

(This new little book contains the remains and ruins of ancient Roman works of art scattered here and there

over different regions of Europe to which all ages must

look up in admiration, depicted as faithfully to life as

splendidly. Printed by Hieronymus Cock, painter, in

Antwerp... 1562)

6. Ornaments I (Grotissen I), by Jan or Lucas van

Doetecum after Cornelis Floris, first volume, fron

tispiece and 11 plates, 1556

Hollstein 4, p. 188, nrs. 309-36; Hollstein 6, p. 250, nrs.

14-41; Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), p. 327, nr. 65; M. de Jong and I. de Groot, Ornamentprenten in het Rijksprenten kabinet: 15de en i6de eeuw, Amsterdam 1988, pp. 63-64, nr. 75; Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 1, pp. 23-28, nrs. 23

34

Title:

Veelderleij Veranderinghe van grotissen ende Comparti menten ghemaeckt tot dienste van alien die de Conste be minnen ende ghebruiken... ghedruckt bij Hieronimus Cock

7556 Cornelis floris inventor libro primo (Manifold varieties of grotesques and frames made to be used by all those who love and practice the art... printed

by Hieronymus Cock 1556, invented by Cornelis Floris, first book)

7. Ornaments II (Grotissen II), by Jan or Lucas van

Doetecum after Cornelis Floris, second volume, fron

tispiece and 15 plates, 1557

Hollstein 4, p. 188, nrs. 309-36; Hollstein 5, p. 252, nr.

5a; Hollstein 6, p. 250, nrs. 14-41 (28-41); Riggs, op. cit.

(note 1), p. 327, nr. 66; de Jong and de Groot, op. cit. (ti tle nr. 6), pp. 65-66, nr. 76; Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 1,

PP- 29-37, nrs. 35-50

Title:

Veelderley niewe inventien van antycksche sepultueren

diemen nou zeer ghebruykende is met noch zeer fraeye gro

tissen en compertimenten zeer begwame voer beeltsniders

antycksniders schilders en alle constenaers... ghedruckt bij

mijJieronymus. Cock. 1557...




(Manifold new inventions of tombs in the antique style much in use nowadays, and also very fine grotesques

and frames, most suitable for sculptors, gem cutters,

painters and all artists... printed by me, Hieronymus

Cock)

8. Interiors and exteriors (Scenographiae) (with a

dedication to Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle),

by Jan and Lucas van Doetecum after Hans Vredeman de Vries; frontispiece, dedication and 20 plates, 1560

Hollstein 4, p. 191, nrs. 556-75; Hollstein 47, pp. 52-68, nrs. 30-50; Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), p. 364, nr. 206; de

Jong and de Groot, op. cit. (title nr. 6), pp. 96-98, nr.

163; Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 2, pp. 7-23, nrs. 163-82

Title:

Scenographiae, sive Perspectivae (ut Aedificia, hoc modo ad opticam excitata, Pictorum vulgus vocat) pulcherrimae viginti selectissimar urn fabric arum, ? pictore Ioanne Vreed manno Frisio ingeniosissime excogitatae & designatae: ?

Hieronymo Cock in gratiam pictorum aliorumque huiusmo di rebus se oblectantium his venustissimis typis in lucem aed itae.... 1560

(Twenty very beautiful scenery drawings or 'perspec tives' (as painters commonly call buildings constructed

according to the rules of optics) of the choicest architec tonic structures, very ingeniously conceived and drawn

by the painter Hans Vredeman de Vries; published in these extremely charming prints for the benefit of artists and of others who take pleasure in things of this kind...

1560)

Dedication: ...Antonio Perrenoto... Hieronymus Cock, pictor, devotis

sime dedicabat.

(Hieronymus Cock, painter, has dedicated [all of this] to

Antoine Perrenot with the greatest devotion)

9. Tombs (Coenotaphia), by Jan and Lucas van

Doetecum after Hans Vredeman de Vries; frontispiece and 27 plates, 1563

Hollstein 4, p. 191, nrs. 576-601; Hollstein 47, pp. 129

50, nrs. 137-64; not in Riggs, op. cit. (note 1); de Jong and de Groot, op. cit. (title nr. 6), pp. 105-07, nr. 168;

Nalis, op. cit. (note 6), vol. 2, pp. 119-37, nrs- 300-26

Title:

...Pictores, statuarii, architecti, latomi, et quicunque prin

cipum magnifieorumque virorum memoriae aeternae in

servitis, adeste: et hunc libellum varias Coenotaphiorum,

tumulorum et mortuorum monumentorum formas typis ele

gantissimis in aere exaratas comprehendentem inspicitote,

emite, utimini et ingeniosae manui Ioanni Vredemanni

Frisii, quae has exeogitavit et liberalitati Hieronimi Cock, cuius impensis haec vobis exhibentur. Bene [should read: exhibentur bent] favete. V?lete. 1563

Antehac aruorum Lector variasque domorumlAtque urbis

dominae semirutorum operum [i.e. effigies Cock d?dit]/ Non minus et varias, haec ne post omnia desint/Nunc tibi

bustorum dat Cocus effigies (Painters, sculptors, architects, stonemasons, and all of

you who serve the eternal memory of princes and highly placed persons, take note. Inspect, buy and use this little

book, which contains all kinds of mausoleums, tombs and memorials for the dead, which have been etched in fine prints in copper. And praise the ingenious hand of Hans Vredeman de Vries who conceived them, and the

liberality of Hieronymus Cock, at whose expense they are made available to you. Farewell.

Reader, after all kinds of depictions of landscapes and

houses, and of the half-decayed works of art of the mis tress of cities [Rome], Cock now makes you a gift of de

pictions of tombs equally diverse, so that this too is not

lacking after all that.)

10. The book of orders I (with a frontispiece in three

versions), by Jan and Lucas van Doetecum after Hans Vredeman de Vries; frontispiece and 18 plates, 1565 (the second volume, issued the same year and devoted to the Corinthian and composite orders, has the same de

scription of the contents. The third volume, on the Tus

can order, was published by Cock's widow in 1578)

Hollstein 47, pp. 164-78, nrs. 183-200; Riggs, op. cit.

(note 1), p. 365, nr. 209; de Jong and de Groot, op. cit.

(title nr. 6), pp. 109-11, nr. 171; Nalis, op. cit. (note 6),

vol. 2, pp. 175-88, nrs. 382-99

Title (Dutch version): Den eersten boeck ghemaect op de twee Colommen Doric en

I?nica, met hun Podien, Basen, Cornicen, Capiteelen, Ar

chitraben, Phrisen, en Coronamenten, elck in dry manieren

gheciert en ghedeylt, tot meerder cieraet en schoonheyt,



66

ghetrocken uut den vermaerden Architect Vitruvio, met

noch meer ander cieraten daer toe dienende, voer Schilders,

Beeltsnyders, Steenhouwers, Schrynwerckers, Gelaesma

kers, en alien Constbeminders

(The first book devoted to the two columns, Doric and

Ionic, with their plinths, bases, cornices, capitals, archi

traves, friezes and entablatures, each designed in three

different ways to the greater adornment and beauty, tak

en from the celebrated architect Vitruvius, with even more decorations serving the same end, for painters,

sculptors in wood and stone, cabinetmakers, stained

glass artists and all lovers of art) (With a poem in eight couplets signed by de Vries.)

ii. Frames I (Compert intent a 7), by Pieter van der

Heyden after Jacob Floris; frontispiece and 16 plates, 1566


1-35; Hollstein 9, p. 31, nrs. 70-104; Riggs, op. cit. (note

1), p. 235, nr. 101; de Jong and de Groot, op. cit. (title nr. 6), pp. 72-73, nr. 81

Title:

Compertimentorum quod vocant multiplex genus lepidis simus [= -is] historiolis poetarumque fabellis ornamentum

[= ornatum] 7566 (The manifold genre of the so-called 'frames,' adorned

with charming historical scenes and the inventions of

poets)

Zeer Vele Veranderingen van Compertimenten gheciert met

historikens van po?sie ende andere ghedrukt bij Hieronimo Cock Schilder...

(Very many varieties of frame adorned with poetical and other histories, printed by Hieronymus Cock)

12. Frames II (Compertintenta II), by Pieter van der

Hey den after Jacob Floris, frontispiece and 14 plates, 1567


1-35; Hollstein 9, p. 31, nrs. 70-104; Riggs, op. cit. (note

1), p. 335, nr. 102; de Jong and de Groot, op. cit. (title nr. 6), pp. 73-74, nr. 82

Title:

Compertimenta pictoriis flosculis manubiisque bellicis varie

gata

(Frames, variously adorned with picturesque fleurons and trophies)

13. Moresques (Maurusiae), by an unknown artist af

ter an unknown artist, frontispiece and 20 plates, undat

ed (the first state without Cock's address)

Hollstein 4, p. 185, nrs. 57-76; Riggs, op. cit. (note 1), p. 376, nr. 263

Title: Variorum [= variarum] protractionum forme [= formae] quas vulgo Maurusias vocant, ad antiquum Persarum, As

syriorum, Arabum, Aeguptiorum, Indorum, Turcarum et

Grecorum more [= morem] conf?ete [= confictae] pictorum aurifabrorum statuariorum polimitariorum, ceterorumque

id genus artificum, et eorum qui acu operantur usui perquam

accomode

(All kinds of decorative frames that are usually called

moresques, designed after the ancient manner of the

Persians, Assyrians, Arabs, Egyptians, Indians, Turks and Greeks, extraordinarily useful for painters, gold smiths, sculptors, damask weavers and similar crafts

men, and for those who work with the needle)



Documents

Nine Offerings for Jan Piet Filedt Kok || Pictores, Adeste! Hieronymus Cock Recommending His Print Series