Portrait of Fuxius
published 1574
Medium
Etching, with engraving, on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 19.5 × 17.9 cm (7 11/16 × 7 1/16 in.); Sheet: 31.1 × 21.6 cm (12 1/4 × 8 9/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
41428
Art Historical Context
Step into the 16th-century world of Renaissance humanism with *Portrait of Fuxius* by Johannes Sambucus, a Hungarian scholar, poet, and diplomat published in 1574. Sambucus, known for his emblem books and intellectual circles in Antwerp—a thriving hub of Northern European printmaking—created this intimate etching with engraving on cream laid paper. Measuring 19.5 × 17.9 cm on a larger 31.1 × 21.6 cm sheet, it exemplifies the portable, reproducible art form that democratized portraiture for collectors and scholars across Europe. Etching, a relatively new technique blending drawn spontaneity wi...
About the Artist
Johannes Sambucus · 1531–1584
Johannes Sambucus (1531–1584), born János Zsámboky in Tyrnau (present-day Trnava, Slovakia), was a Hungarian humanist scholar, physician, historian, and emblematist whose intellectual ambitions carried him across the courts and universities of Renaissance Europe. Educated at universities in Vienna, Paris, Wittenberg, Padua, and Bologna, Sambucus absorbed the full breadth of humanist learning and b...