Johannes Wierix

1549 Antwerp – ca. 1620 Brussels

Johannes (Jan) Wierix was the older brother of Hieronymus and Antonie Wierix. Together they were among the most prolific of the numerous engravers active in Antwerp in the second half of the sixteenth and in the early seventeenth centuries. Johannes` precocious talent emerged early. While still a young man he engraved deceptive copies of the principal works of Albrecht Dürer, whose technically sophisticated engraving style was to exert a defining influence on him for the rest of his life. From 1569 Wierix worked for the publisher Christophe Plantin. He designed as well as engraved, and worked for other publishers as well as publishing himself. In 1572 he became a master of the Antwerp Guild. He left Antwerp permanently after 1594 and finally settled in Brussels around 1600.