Raphael Custos

Raphael Custos in 1635

Raphael Custos , also Raphael Custodis , (* around 1590 in Augsburg ; † May 11, 1664 in Augsburg) was a German engraver , etcher and publisher who worked in the Free Imperial City of Augsburg. He belongs to the Kilians family dynasty , because Lucas and Wolfgang Kilian were half-brothers of his and their workshops all worked closely with one another.

Family relationships

The father Dominicus Custos , born around 1560 as the son of the Flemish painter and poet Pieter Baltens in Antwerp , came to Augsburg in 1584, where he worked as a draftsman, engraver and publisher until the end of his life in 1615. In 1588 he married Maria Pfeiffelmann, widow of the goldsmith Bartholomäus Kilian, who was the founding father of a family dynasty of engravers and publishers in Augsburg. Maria brought two sons, Lukas and Wolfgang, with her from the first marriage and then had three sons with Dominicus: Raphael, David and Jakob.

Fields of activity

Raphael Custos was trained by his father and the two slightly older half-brothers will certainly also have been involved.

An engraving by Raphael Custos: Title page for Furttenbach's ARCHITECTURA CIVILIS, 1628

His first major work, still under the guidance of Dominicus, was the illustration of the book Regum neapolitanorum vitae et effigies (life and portraits of Neapolitan kings) , published in 1606 . In the course of time a whole series of such book illustrations followed. These included books that were widespread at the time. For example, the book Cabala, Spiegel der Kunst und Natur in Alchymia by Stephan Michelspacher (from Tiroll ), published in 1615, and the work Architectura civiles (civil architecture) by Joseph Furttenbach , published in 1628 . Raphael Custos has also published books himself, such as a reprint (on behalf of Philipp Hainhofer ) of the work Emblemata amoris (Symbols of Love) by Otto van Veen , which appeared in 1622.

Maps were also engraved in copper by Raphael Custos. So for the cartographer Johann Christoph Hurter a map of the entire Iller river basin ( Illerae Amnis ac utrinque adiacentis Alemanniae Geographica Descriptio. Des Illerstroms and the surrounding Algöws on both sides ), which appeared in Augsburg in 1619 and is the oldest cartographic representation of the Allgäu . This was followed by another engraving for a map by Hurter with a representation of the entire Alemannic area ( Alemaniae sive Sueviae superioris Chorographia nova ), which was published in Memmingen , Hurter's hometown, in 1625 .

To this end, Raphael Custos also created a whole series of individual copper engravings: illustrated leaflets, portraits, etc., and he will certainly have helped his half-brothers, who were extremely productive in this field, with their work many times. He etched and engraved a large number of sheets after Johann Matthias Kager and some of them probably also published. In his workshop he was supported by good draftsmen and engravers. For example, the Swiss painter and engraver Conrad Meyer worked for Raphael Custos for some time around 1642 and was certainly in contact with illustrations for edifying works (especially with edifyingly illustrated leaflets) , which helped his further development was not insignificant.

literature

• Martina Sulmoni: A youth who loves art and virtue: The image-text combinations in the New Year's papers of the Burgerbibliothek Zürich from 1645 to 1672 , Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Bern 2007, ISBN 978-3-03911-172-5
• Ruthardt Oehme: The history of the cartography of the German Southwest: With 16 color plates and 42 black and white plates , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Konstanz and Stuttgart 1961
• Georg Kaspar Nagler : New general artist lexicon or news of the life and works of painters, sculptors, builders, engravers, form cutters, lithographers, draftsmen, medalists, ivory workers, etc. , third volume, published by EA Fleischmann, Munich 1836

Web links

Commons : Raphael Custos  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Raphael Custos in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Bavarian State Library Map of the Iller river area from 1619
• The British Museum Some work by Raphael Custos
• Index entry for Raphael Custos in Deutsche Biographie

Remarks

1. ↑ He was called or called himself Custodis (Custos), which explains the different surnames. («Custodis» is said to be the Latinized form of «Offermans».)
2. ↑ Internet Archive Regum neapolitanorum vitae et effigies
3. ↑ Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin A page with some excerpts from the work Kabala, Mirror of Art and Nature in Alchymia and onward to the entire book. (On page 7 there is an acknowledgment of the author Michelspacher to Johann Remmelin , whose thinking and knowledge were probably quite essential for this work.)
4. ↑ Bavarian State Library Architectura civilis by Joseph Furttenbach
5. ↑ Ruthardt Oehme: The history of the cartography of the German Southwest (1961), page 128
6. ↑ Ruthardt Oehme: The history of the cartography of the German Southwest (1961), page 75
7. ↑ Martina Sulmoni: A youth who loves art and virtues (2007), page 39