Willem Hondius
Willem Hondius (* 1597 in The Hague , † 1652 or 1658 in the Netherlands, actually d'Hondt or de Hondt , known in Poland as Wilhelm Hondius (or Hondiusz )) was a Dutch draftsman , engraver and cartographer . He came from a well-known Amsterdam family of artists who owned a renowned publishing house . His parents were Henrik d. Ä. (1573-1650) and Sara Jansz.
Life
He trained as a draftsman and cartographer at his father Henrik's publishing house, and was a student of Johan Wierix.
A relationship to the family of Jodocus Hondius and his son Henricus Hondius is not certain.
Already in the Netherlands he received the title of engraver of the States General , where he collaborated with Anthony van Dyck on the portraits of the members of the Dutch court. He lived in Gdansk in Prussia from 1636 and probably also temporarily in Warsaw , Poland, where he became a copperplate engraver at the court of kings Władysław IV. Wasa and Jan Kazimierz . The king gave him the title Chalcographus privilegatus for 30 years .
Willem Hondius returned to his homeland before his death and died in 1652 (or 1658 according to other data).
He was married twice. He married Kornelia van den Ende in 1632 in The Hague and married Anna Mackensen, daughter of a goldsmith, in Danzig in 1646.
plant
Willem Hondius created eight portraits of Władysław IV. Wasa, more of Jan Kazimierz as well as of Cäcilia Renata and Louise Maria Gonzaga and of numerous Danzig patricians.
In cartography , the plan for the relief at Smolensk 1633–1634, based on a drawing by Jan Pleitner, brought him fame. The 16 engraved plates were artistically decorated and also contained scenes from the life of a soldier. He designed the Wieliczka plan and the views of the salt mine there (7 panels, 1645), made after a drawing by Martin German. Hondius engraved the views of the Danzig fortifications (1644) and the Danzig Triumphal Arch (1646) built on the occasion of the royal wedding .
For the work " Selenographia sive Lunae Descriptio " by Johannes Hevelius (1647) he made the astronomical tables and for the work "Bellum Scythico-cosacicum" by Joachim Pastorius von Hirtenberg (1611–1681) the title page (published by Förster in Danzig in 1652) on. Hondius was in the troops of Janusz Radziwiłł , who conquered Kiev in August 1651 in the course of the Cossack Wars. The very first portrait of the well-known Cossack leader Bohdan Chmielnicki comes from Hondius , which became the basis for all of his illustrations.
The work “Atlante Polonico” (also: “Theatrum Poloniae”) for which the material and the like remained unfinished. a. the French military engineer who was stationed in the Ukraine, Guillaume le Vasseur de Beauplan , delivered. For “Atlante”, Hondius engraved 20 plates, 11 of which were found in the Gdansk City Library in 1952. The aim of the project was to measure Poland-Lithuania and to publish the result as an atlas. There is hardly any information about this project because most of the documentation has been lost. The office was presumably in Warsaw. The first maps of Ukraine were also engraved as copperplate engravings (8 plates) by Hondius in 1648–1650.
In total, Hondius cut about 180 plates, some of which were lost. Most of the preserved plates are in Krakow. His drawings from the collection in Gdansk were destroyed during the Second World War .
literature
- Polski Słownik Biograficzny , Vol. 9, 1960, pp. 605-606, biogram of Irena Fabiani-Madeyska.
- Grote Winkler Prins Encyclopedie , Amsterdam-Brussels 1981, Vol. 11, pp. 280-281
- Joseph Eduard Wessely : Hondius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 69 f.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hondius, Willem |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | d'Hondt, Willem |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch draftsman, cartographer and engraver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1597 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | The hague |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1652 or 1658 |