- Header
- Israhel van Meckenem
- Also known as
-
Israhel van Meckenem
-
primary name: Meckenem, Israhel van
-
other name: Meckenem, Israel van
- Details
- individual; printmaker; German; Male
- Other dates
- 1440-1503 (Born c. 1440/45)
- Biography
- Goldsmith and engraver. His oeuvre of about 500 engravings makes him the most prolific engraver of the fifteenth century. His family possibly came from Meckenheim near Bonn. His earliest work is closely connected with the Master of the Berlin Passion (probably active in Kleve); Israhel made numerous copies of this artist's prints and re-worked 22 of his engraved plates. He made a decision early in his career to work as a reproductive engraver and copied work by the Master ES, Schongauer and Dürer; he also designed lively and innovative genre scenes and ornament prints. By 1480 he had settled in Bocholt. Documents indicate that he owned property, had a flourishing workshop and also worked as a goldsmith. The date of his death, 10 November 1503, is recorded in an anonymous drawing of c. 1600 in the British Museum (inv. E,1.159) of his tombstone which has not survived.
- Bibliography
- Lehrs IX (624 nos)
Hollstein, vols. XXIV and XXIVa (by Fritz Koreny; follows Lehrs numbering)
A. Riether, 'Israhel van Meckenem (um 1440/45 - 1503) Kupferstiche - Der Münchner Bestand', exh cat, Munich, Staatliche Graphishe Sammlung, 2006 (reviewed in PQ, xxiv, 2007, pp.316-7)