MATHAM Jacob
(Haarlem 1571 – 1631)
Marrying Margaretha Jansdr, a wealthy widow with an eight-year-old son, Hendrick Goltzius became the stepfather of Jacob Matham, his future student and collaborator in the art of engraving.
Growing up and working closely with Goltzius, Jacob perfectly assimilated his technique and style and reproduced numerous paintings and drawings of his stepfather and master.
After a stay in Italy between 1593 and 1597, under the influence of second manierism, he performed works of reproduction from Raffaello, Federico Zuccari and Titian.
Back in Holland, he joined the Haarlem Guild in 1600 and became Dean five years later.
At the beginning of the 17th century, he engraved derivative works from paintings by Pieter Aersen, where the first genre scenes begin to appear. This kind of popular subject would have much importance in the Netherlands’ art in the coming decades.
Appreciated by Rubens as an engraver, Matham performed reproductions of his paintings permeated with pictorial effects, as the Flemish Master wanted.
His work treated various subjects, from sacred to mythological, from landscape to portrait.
His three sons, Jan, Theodor and Adriaen, were engravers too.
