Matthäus Merian the Younger

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Matthäus Merian the Younger
Merian's grave in Frankfurt's Peterskirchhof

Matthäus Merian the Younger (born March 25, 1621 in Basel , † February 15, 1687 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a painter , engraver and publisher .

life and work

Matthäus Merian was the eldest son of the engraver Matthäus Merian (1593–1650) and his first wife Maria Magdalena nee. de Bry. His half-sister was Maria Sibylla Merian . After the death of his grandfather Johann Theodor de Bry , the father took over his publishing house in Frankfurt am Main, where Matthäus d. J. became a pupil of Joachim von Sandrart . With him he went to Amsterdam in 1637 , to Anthony van Dyck in London in 1639 and to Paris in 1641 .

In 1642 Merian returned to Frankfurt, but stayed in Italy from 1643 to 1647 to study. In 1647 he took part as a political agent and representative of several princes at the peace congress in Nuremberg, of whose participants he made portraits . From 1647/48 he was also in the service of General von Wrangel , whom he portrayed several times .

After the death of his father in 1650, he ran the publishing house together with his younger brother Caspar Merian and edited further volumes of the Topographia Germaniae and the Theatrum Europaeum . Apart from these series, the publisher hardly produced any books. Merian achieved his greatest success as a portraitist , for example in 1658 at the coronation of Leopold I in Frankfurt. Merian also created altarpieces , among others for the Bamberg Cathedral and the Barefoot Church in Frankfurt.

Merian died on February 15, 1687 in Frankfurt. His grave in the Peterskirchhof in Frankfurt has been preserved.

Works (selection)

Landgrave Friedrich von Hessen-Eschwege as a falconer.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Family tree of Matthäus Merian the Younger (1621–1678)
  2. ↑ Klaus Bußmann , Heinz Schilling : 1648 - War and Peace in Europe. Catalog volume and two text volumes, Münster 1998 [Documentation of the Council of Europe exhibition on the 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia in Münster and Osnabrück.] Münster / Osnabrück 1998, ISBN 3-88789-127-9 , p. 407 f.
  3. ↑ Stefan Kummer : Architecture and fine arts from the beginnings of the Renaissance to the end of the Baroque. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes; Volume 2: From the Peasants' War in 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814. Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1477-8 , pp. 576–678 and 942–952, here: pp. 624 f.

Web links

Commons : Matthäus Merian the Younger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Merian, Matthew the Younger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Painter, engraver and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1621
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1687
Place of death Frankfurt am Main