Art Institute of Chicago

Peter Paul Rubens

Paul Pontius (Flemish, 1603-1658)

Date

1630/45

Medium

Etching and engraving in black on cream laid paper

Culture

Flanders

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Pontius was trained as a painter prior to studying engraving. By the age of 24, he was a master in the Antwerp guild and was the primary artist responsible for making engravings after the work of Peter Paul Rubens. During his life, Rubens closely supervised the printmakers who reproduced his work, encouraging them to imitate his style as closely as possible. Pontius actually lived in Rubens’s house until a year after the painter’s death, at which time he went on to make engravings, such as this one, after Anthony van Dyck and other artists like Titian and Diego Velázquez. He also became a well-known portrait engraver.

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