First Day: The Creation of Heaven and Earth, from The Creation to the Expulsion from Paradise
c. 1610
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 13.6 × 12.6 cm (5 3/8 × 5 in.); sheet: 14.6 × 13.2 cm (5 3/4 × 5 1/4 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
268091
Art Historical Context
Behold *First Day: The Creation Heaven and Earth*, a delicate engraving by Flemish artist Nicolaes de Bruyn, created around 1610. This intimate print, part of his series *The Creation to the Exp from Paradise*, captures the moment from Genesis when God separates light from darkness on the first day. De Bruyn, a master engraver active in Antwerp during the early Baroque era, was renowned for his intricate reproductive prints that brought religious narratives to a wide audience through affordable multiples. Crafted on luxurious ivory laid paper—a fine, early European sheet with visible chain li...
About the Artist
Nicolaes de Bruyn · 1571–1656
Nicolaes de Bruyn was a Flemish printmaker born in Antwerp in 1571, active during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and known primarily for his large, elaborately detailed engravings of landscapes, hunting scenes, and biblical and mythological subjects. He trained in the tradition of Flemish reproductive engraving and was deeply influenced by the work of his contemporaries and pre...