Matthäus Merian

der Ältere (the Elder") born the 22 September 1593 at Basel and died the 19 June 1650 at Schwalbach was a notable engraver, etcher, and book dealer, the leading German illustrator of the 17th century.
Born in Basel, he learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich and after worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry, whose daughter Maria Magdalena he married in 1617. 1626 he became a citizen of Frankfurt and could henceforth work as an independent publisher. Matthäus Merian died after several years of illness in 1650 in Bad Schwalbach near Wiesbaden.He spent most of his working life in Frankfurt. Already early in his life he produced detailed town plans in his unique style. With Martin Zeiler (1589 - 1661), a German geographer, and later (circa 1640) with his son, Matthäus Merian the Younger, he produced a series of books known as the Topographia Germaniae, and the great work of Theatrum Europaeum on 21 volumes. It includes a very large number of town plans and battle views and siege of 30 years war and later wars

Matthäus Merian the Younger
(1621-1687)

German topographical engraver. Youngest son of Matthäus Merian, the engraver of detailed Veduten, portraits of European cities. Matthäus Merian the Younger, and his brother Caspar carried on their father’s publishing business after his death. Their little half-sister Maria Sibylla, a famous explorer, was born in 1647, the daughter of Matthäus Merian’s second wife.

Gualdo Priorato Galeazzo (Vicenza 1606-1678) was a soldier, historian, tactician, diplomatist and military draughtsman, had an active life that brought him to give his services of soldier under different flags. Important witness of his epoch, thanks to a good writing and to an impressive ability to pick up the data. It was first with Maurice of Nassau in the Flanders against the Spanish, then with French and late the English. Still it was to the service of the Wallenstein against the Swedes. In 1653 it made him naturalize French. In 1664 he come back in Italy, at Vicenza where it had the opportunity of writing numerous historical works.

Jacques Callot (1592 - 1635)
was a baroque graphics artist, draftsman and printmaker from nancy in the Duchy of Lorraine. He made etchings that chronicled the people and the life of his period (soldiers, clowns, drunkards, wanderers, beggars, and various outcasts). Remarkable his work called "Les miserès de la guerre". His skill in shading and his use of different tones were remarkable for the period and he is often compared to Albrecht Dürer.

Jacob de Gheyn (1565-1629)
Dutch draughtsman, engraver, and painter. He was born at Antwerp . He worked for the Court of Orange at The Hague. His drawings and engravings are of greater importance than his paintings, for in their spontaneity and informality they are outstanding documents of the period of transition from Mannerism to naturalism in Dutch art.