Jan Luyken

Johannes or Jan Luyken (April 16, 1649 – April 5, 1712) was a Dutch poet, illustrator and engraver.[1]

Jan Luyken from the Bowyer Bible

Biography
Jan Luiken made the engravings for the popular "sailor's bible" called "Lusthof des Gemoeds", by Jan Philipsz Schabaalje, 1714
Jan Luyken's print of the peat boat used as a ruse by the Dutch to gain possession of Breda from the Spanish in 1590

He was born and died in Amsterdam, where he learned engraving from his father Kaspar Luyken.[1] He married at 19 and had several children, of who Kasparus Luiken also became a renowned engraver.[1] He had a religious experience at age 26 that inspired him to write moralistic poetry.[1]

Works

He illustrated the 1685 edition of the Martyrs Mirror with 104 copper etchings. Thirty of these plates survive and are part of The Mirror of the Martyrs exhibit.[2]

He also published Het Menselyk Bedryf ("The Book of Trades") in 1694, which contains numerous engravings, by Luiken and his son Caspar (Caspaares), of 17th century trades.

Cultural references

Joris-Karl Huysmans' anti-hero Des Esseintes in À rebours was an admirer of Luyken's engravings and had prints from his Religious Persecutions hung in his drawing room. He described them as 'appalling engravings containing all the tortures that the madness of religion could devise.' Des Esseintes was enthralled not just by Luyken's graphic depictions but his ability to reconstruct times and places in his works.

Notes
  1. Kort verhaal Van het godvruchtig leven En zalig afsterven Van Joannes Luiken (Short story of the religious life and peaceful death of Joannes Luiken) in the DBNL
  2. "The Mirror of the Martyrs". Bethel College. Archived from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved December 24, 2007.

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