Jan Muller

1571–1628, Amsterdam

The Amsterdam printmaker and publisher Jan Muller, the eldest son of Harmen Jansz Muller, is considered one of the most important representatives of the Goltzius style. It is not clear, however, whether or not he was trained by Goltzius himself. What is certain is that Muller worked as an engraver up to about 1589 for the Haarlem workshop of Goltzius. From 1590 the majority of his sheets appeared in the publishing house of his father in Amsterdam. Muller became especially famous as a result of his startlingly dynamic engravings after paintings by Bartholomäus Spranger. Between 1590 and 1606 the artist was the most important reproductive engraver after Spranger, who worked at the Prague court of Rudolph II. In his later years Muller created a number of portraits after other contemporary masters like Rubens, van Mierevelt, and Pieter Isaacz and therefore ceased to deploy a Mannerist vocabulary in his work.