Bruges

engraving of Burges, person in the foreground, city in the background

Geographical Locations in Texts: Bruges.

3 people in this category.

11. Jan Van Eyck
11. Jan Van Eyck

11. Jan Van Eyck

Engraving
Signed 'Hh ex.' by Hendrick Hondius
Copy in reverse direction to Cock 1572 engraved Pictorum
20.7 x 11.9 cm

Transcription of Inscription [Lampsonius]:

IOANNES AB EYCK, PICTOR.
Ille ego, qui laetos oleo de semine lini
Expresso docui princeps miscere colores,
Huberto cum fratre novum stupuere repertum,
Atque ipsi ignotum quondam fortassis Apelli,
Florentes opibus Brugae mox nostra per omnem
Diffundi late probitas non abnuit orbem.

Translation of Inscription [Lampsonius]:

Jan van Eyck, painter
I am he who 1 first taught to mix joyful colours from the pressed oily seed of flax, 2 with my brother Hubert.  Bruges, flourishing with wealth, was astounded by this new discovery, perhaps unknown in the past to Apelles himself.  Soon afterwards our uprightness 3 did not refuse to be spread widely through the whole world.

Hollstein 1994 no. 83

Karel Van Mander's biography of Jan van Eyck
Grove Art Online biography


View the 1572 print
View both prints side by side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

71. Frans Pourbus
71. Frans Pourbus

71. Frans Pourbus

Engraved by Hendrick Hondius (Orenstein 1996)
Signed 'Hh form. Cum privil.' by Hendrick Hondius
19.8 x 12.2 cm


Transcription of Inscription:
FRANCISCUS POURBUSIUS, BRUGENSIS.
Patre fuit pictore satus Pourbusius : arte
   Verum patre prior.  Sic monumenta docent.
Vivunt, quas pinxit pecudes pictaéque volucres :
     Pictoris lugent quae simul interitum.

Translation of Inscription:
Frans Pourbus of Bruges.
Pourbus was begotten by a painter father, but in skill he stood before his father.  His monuments teach this.  The flocks and coloured birds4 which he painted are alive, [and] they weep together for the painter’s death. 

Hollstein 1994 no.106

 Karel Van Mander's biography of Frans Pourbus
 Grove Art Online biography 

107. Johannes Stradanus
107. Johannes Stradanus

107. Johannes Stradanus

Etching, second state
Inscribed on cartouche 'Pars III. Henr. hondius excudit. Cum Privil.', attributed to Simon Frisius

19.9 x 15.9 cm

Transcription of Inscription:

IOANNES STRADANUS, BRUGENS. PICT. 
Stradano Belga florens Hetruria gaudet,
Quae tantum Belgis invidet artificem.
Cujus et ipse Myron opera et miratur Apelles : 
Quem doctae et pulcrae progenuere Brugae.


Translation of Inscription:

Johannes Stradanus, painter of Bruges
Flowering Tuscany rejoices in the Belgian van der Straet.  She envies the Belgians so great an artist, whose works Myron himself and Apelles admire, whom beautiful, learned Bruges brought forth.

Orenstein 1996, Frisius no. 155; Hollstein 2008 no.175

 Karel Van Mander's biography of Johannes Stradanus
 Grove Art Online biography 107

Footnotes:

  1. “ille ego qui” – For the ultimate source of this phrase, see the apocryphal opening lines to the Aeneid, “ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena…”
  2. “oleo de semine lini”: the same expression in the poem for Cornelis Engebrechtsz.
  3. This for “probitas”.  It is hard to see quite what the author means, but “probitas” to my knowledge always has a moral sense.
  4. “pictaeque volucres” comes from Virgil, Aeneid 4.525. Virgil is writing about real birds, and is therefore using “pictae” to mean “coloured, variegated”. But here the term could also have its literal meaning, “painted”, “pinxit and “pictae” are two forms of the same verb (polyptoton).