Hieronymus Cock - Daphne in arborem

Etching on paper
1551
23 by 32 cm

After visiting Italy in the 1540s Hieronymus Cock started in 1548 his own printing business in Antwerp. He gave it the name `Aux quatre vents` and it soon was a wildly succesful company. Meanwhile he occasionly made his own prints. In Daphne in arborem for example the central scene - Daphne being chased by Apollo and gradually turning into a tree - is set in a wide italianate landscape with mountains and a river. As in some contemporary paintings and prints by Bruegel - The fall of Icarus is a good example - the extensive landscape almost reduces the human tragedy to an insignificant detail.