Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange-Nassau
1618-19
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 41.3 × 30.8 cm (16 5/16 × 12 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
268738
Art Historical Context
This striking engraving portrays Frederik Hendrik, Prince of-Nassau (1584–1647), a pivotal figure in Dutch history as stadtholder and military leader during the Eighty Years' War against Spanish rule. Created by Willem Jacobsz. Delff, a skilled Delft engraver active in the early 17th century, 1618–19, the work captures the prince at a moment of rising Dutch prominence, just after the Twelve Years' Truce and amid religious tensions resolved by the Synod of Dort Delff's precise lines convey Frederik Hendrik's authoritative presence, emblematic of the emerging Dutch Republic's quest for independe...
About the Artist
Willem Jacobsz. Delff · 1580–1638
Willem Jacobsz. Delff (c. 1580–1638) was a Dutch Golden Age engraver and painter whose portrait engravings provide an invaluable visual record of early 17th-century Dutch society. Born around October 1580 in Delft, Willem came from an artistic family and trained under his father, Jacob Willemsz. Delff the Elder, himself a painter. Willem's marriage to Geertruid van Mierevelt, daughter of the renow...