HOPFER Daniel

‘Maestro del candeliere’ (Kaufbeuren c. 1470 – Augsburg 1536)

Daniel Hopfer was a German armour and engraver. Son of a painter called Bartholomäus Hopfer and Anna Sendlerin, Daniel moved to Augsburg still adolescent and there he gained citizenship in 1493.
A few years later, he married Justina Grimm, sister of the publisher and humanist Sigismund Grimm, from whom he had three sons: Jörg, Hieronymus and Lambert. The last two followed the father’s profession of engravers.
During his apprenticeship as engraver and decorator of armor, Daniel learnt to use acid solutions to engrave metal. This particular experience induced him to treat metal plates with acid in order to obtain representations on paper. At present, it is a widely shared view that Daniel Hopfer was the first to introduce the use of etching in graphic art in the late 15th century.

At Ausgburg, working under the patronage of Massimiliano I, who wanted to make the town the center of humanism, Hopfer produced many prints with the etchings on paper technique.

In addition to decorative prints, in which we can easily recognize the origin from decorations of armors, he also produced religious, mythological, military and folkloric subjects, for which he used iron plates as print matrices.