Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-07T15:13:47.665Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Female Glass Engravers in the Early Modern Dutch Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2020

Martine van Elk*
Affiliation:
California State University, Long Beach

Abstract

This essay explores glass engravings by Dutch authors Anna Roemers Visscher, Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher, and Anna Maria van Schurman. I place these engravings in their rich contemporary contexts, comparing them to other art forms that were the product of female pastime. Like embroidery, emblems, and alba amicorum, engraved glasses combined text and image, transforming each glass into an object that fulfilled key social and cultural functions. Above all, engraving glasses allowed women to forge new self-representations, specifically through their use of play to question binary oppositions and moral certainties.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by the Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Venturing into interdisciplinary analysis is impossible without support. My thanks go to Lia van Gemert for her encouragement and to the RSA for organizing its annual conference, at which I first presented some of my readings of these glasses and by which I continue to be inspired. I would also like to express my gratitude to the two anonymous readers for RQ for wonderfully helpful comments on this essay.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alpers, Svetlana. The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Ashworth, William B. Jr.Natural History and the Emblematic World View.” In Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, ed. Lindberg, David C. and Westman, Robert S., 303–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Bass, Marisa Anne. Insect Artifice: Nature and Art in the Dutch Revolt. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019.Google Scholar
Bok, Marten Jan, and de Meyere, Jos. “Schilderes aan haar ezel: Nieuwe gegevens over het schilderij van Gerard van Honthorst.” Oud Utrecht 58.12 (1985): 298303.Google Scholar
Croiset van Uchelen, Ton. “Maria Strick, Schoolmistress and Calligrapher in Early Seventeenth-Century Holland.” Querendo 39 (2009): 83132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Jeu, Annelies. “Eelckje van Bouricius: Een zeventiende-eeuwse dichteres in de marge van de literaire wereld.” Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse taal- en letterkunde 114.1 (1998): 329–45.Google Scholar
Erasmus, Desiderius. Adages Iiv1 to Ix100. Vol. 32 of The Collected Works of Erasmus. Trans. Mynors, R. A. B.. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Fleming, Juliet. Graffiti and the Writing Arts of Early Modern England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Frye, Susan. Pens and Needles: Women's Textualities in Early Modern England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Gegraveerd glas van Maria Tesselschade ontdekt in beerput.” Ed. Visser, Lillian and Visser, Yuri. Historiek. 14 April 2016. http://historiek.net/gegraveerd-glas-van-maria-tesselschade-gevonden/58330/.Google Scholar
De Geïntegreerde Taalbank: Historische woordenboeken Nederlands en Fries. 2007–18. Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal. Cited as GTB.Google Scholar
Gell, Alfred. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Heinsius, Daniel. Nederduytsche poemata. Amsterdam, 1616.Google Scholar
Henkes, Harold E.Glas zonder glans: Vijf eeuwen gebruiksglas uit de bodem van de Lage Landen 1300–1800 / Glass without Gloss: Utility Glass from Five Centuries Excavated in the Low Countries 1300–1800. Rotterdam: Coördinatie commissie van advies inzake archeologisch onderzoek binnen het resort Rotterdam, 1994.Google Scholar
Hiddes, Jos. “Kunstenaressen in de marge? Over knipkunst, calligrafie en roem.” In Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek (1998), 107–17.Google Scholar
Hieronymus. Commentarii. Ed. Migne, J.-P.. Paris, 1845. Monumenta Informatik. http://monumenta.ch/latein/xanfang.php?n=21.Google Scholar
Honig, Elizabeth Alice. “The Art of Being ‘Artistic’: Dutch Women's Creative Practices in the 17th Century.Women's Art Journal 22.2 (Autumn 2001–Winter 2002): 3139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooft, P. C.Liederen en gedichten. Ed. Koppenol, Johan. Amsterdam: Athenaeum, 2004.Google Scholar
Houbraken, Arnold. De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen. 3 vols. Amsterdam: Israel, 1976.Google Scholar
Hudig, Ferrand. “Graveerwerk van Anna Roemers Visscher.Oud Holland 41 (1923–24): 175–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huygens, Constantijn. De gedichten van Constantijn Huygens, naar zijn handschrift uitgegeven. Ed. Worp, J. A.. 9 vols. Groningen: Wolters, 1892–99.Google Scholar
Jansen, Jeroen. “P. C. Hooft, lecteur et imitateur de Montaigne.” In Montaigne and the Low Countries (1580–1700), ed. Smith, Paul J. and Enenkel, Karl A. E., 173–85. Leiden: Brill, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jorink, Eric. Reading the Book of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age, 1575–1715. Trans. Peter Mason. Leiden: Brill, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, Lisa M. “Your Humble Handmaid: Elizabethan Gifts of Needlework.” Renaissance Quarterly 50.2 (1997): 459–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kloek, Els. “Vrouwen en het kunstenaarsleven van de Republiek. Een inleiding.” In Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek (1998), 919.Google Scholar
Laan, Cora. Drank en drinkgerei: Een archeologisch en cultuurhistorisch onderzoek naar de alledaagse drinkcultuur van de 18e-eeuwse Hollanders. Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 2003.Google Scholar
Margolin, Jean-Claude. “Georgette de Montenay, ses ‘Emblèmes ou Devises Chrestiennes,’ et Anna Roemers Visscher.” Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 51.2 (1989): 419–23.Google Scholar
Moerman, Ingrid W. L.Kalligrafie: Echte nationale dilettantenkunst.” Nieuw letterkundig magazijn 16.1 (1998): 2325.Google Scholar
Montaigne. Les Essais. Ed. Villey, Pierre. 3 vols. 2nd ed.Paris: Quadrige PUF, 1992.Google Scholar
Neri, Janice. The Insect and the Image: Visualizing Nature in Early Modern Europe, 1500–1700. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogilvie, Brian W. The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivétan, Pierre Robert, trans. Le nouveau testament. Paris, 1535.Google Scholar
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Ed. and trans. Goodwin, William W. et al. 5 vols. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874.Google Scholar
Reinders, Sophie. De mug en de kaars: Vriendenboekjes van adelijke vrouwen, 1575–1640. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2017.Google Scholar
Ritsema van Eck, P. C. “Bastiaan Boers en Mathieu Petit, schrijfmeesters, schoonschrijvers en glasgraveurs.” Bulletin van het Rijksmusum 30.2 (1982): 5162.Google Scholar
Schenkeveld-van der Dussen, M. A.Anna Roemers Visscher: De tiende van de negen, de vierde van de drie.Jaarboek van de maatschappij der Nederlandse letterkunde (1979–80): 314.Google Scholar
Smit, F. G. A. M.Uniquely Dutch Seventeenth-Century Calligraphy on Glass: A Preliminary Catalogue. Peterborough: n.p., 1989.Google Scholar
Smit, F. G. A. M.Anna Roemers and Maria Tesselschade and Their Engravings on Glass. Peterborough: n.p., 1990.Google Scholar
Smit, F. G. A. M.Uniquely Dutch Eighteenth-Century Stipple-Engravings on Glass: A Systematic Catalogue with Keys for the Identification of the Engraved Glasses. Peterborough: n.p., 1993.Google Scholar
Smits-Veldt, Mieke B.Maria Tesselschade: Leven met talent en vriendschap. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1994.Google Scholar
Strauss, Jerome. “The Diamond-Engraved Glasses of Elisabeth Crama.” Journal of Glass Studies 12 (1970): 136–39.Google Scholar
Terence, . Eunuchus. Ed. Barsby, John. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thoen, Irma. Strategic Affection? Gift Exchange in Seventeenth-Century Holland. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Stighelen, Katlijne. Anna Maria van Schurman of ‘Hoe hooge dat een maeght kan in de konsten stijgen. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Van Elk, Martine. “Courtliness, Piety, and Politics: Emblem Books by Georgette de Montenay, Anna Roemers Visscher, and Esther Inglis.” In Early Modern Women and Transnational Communities of Letters, ed. Larsen, Anne R. and Campbell, Julie D., 183210. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009.Google Scholar
Van Elk, Martine. Early Modern Women's Writing: Domesticity, Privacy, and the Public Sphere in England and the Dutch Republic. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Elk, Martine. “Capable of Bruising a Letter: Early Modern Women's Calligraphy.” Early Modern Women: Lives, Texts, Objects (16 February 2018). https://martinevanelk.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/capable-of-bruising-a-letter-early-modern-womens-calligraphy/.Google Scholar
Van Gelder, H. E.Aanteekeningen over Willem Kalf en Cornelia Pluvier.Oud Holland 59.1–2 (1942): 3746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Godewijck, Margareta. “Gedichten van Margareta Godewyck, met XXVIII door haar geschilderde zinne-beelden.” 1641–55. Regionaal Archief Dordrecht MS 1024.Google Scholar
Virgil. Aeneid. Trans. Ahl, Frederick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Visscher, Anna Roemers. Alle de gedichten van Anna Roemers Visscher. Ed. Beets, Nicolaes. 2 vols. Utrecht: Beijers, 1881.Google Scholar
Visscher, Anna Roemers. Gedichten van Anna Roemersdochter Visscher: Een bloemlezing met inleiding en commentaar. Ed. der Dussen, Riet Schenkeveld-van and de Jeu, Annelies. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Visscher, Maria Tesselschade Roemers et al. Een onwaerdeerlycke Vrouw: Brieven en verzen van en aan Maria Tesselschade. Ed. Worp, J. A.. Utrecht: Hes, 1976.Google Scholar
Visscher, Roemer. Brabbeling van Roemer Visscher: By hem selven overzien, en meer als de helft vermeerdert. Amsterdam, 1614a.Google Scholar
Visscher, Roemer. Sinnepoppen. Amsterdam, 1614b.Google Scholar
Visscher, Roemer. Brabbeling (1614): Een bloemlezing. Ed. Fleurkens, Anneke C. G.. Hilversum: Verloren, 2013.Google Scholar
Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek: Een overzicht. Ed. Kloek, Els, Sengers, Catherine Peters, and Tobé, Esther. Hilversum: Verloren, 1998.Google Scholar
Westerbaen, Jacob. Minne-dichten. 's-Gravenhage, 1624.Google Scholar
Woodbridge, Linda. “Patchwork: Piecing the Early Modern Mind in England's First Century of Print Culture.” English Literary Renaissance 23.1 (1993): 545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeoman, Victoria. “Speaking Plates: Text, Performance, and Banqueting Trenchers in Early Modern Europe.” Renaissance Studies 31.5 (2017): 755–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeeusche nachtegael, ende Des selfs dryderley gesang. Middelburg, 1623.Google Scholar