Hieronymus Cock
How do you think citizens living in Flanders centuries ago were introduced to the finest of paintings? How did they get acquainted with the monumental frescoes of Raphael in the Vatican, Bruegel’s series of The Seven Virtues and The Seven Deadly Sins, or Rogier van der Weyden’s “Descent from the Cross”, hanging somewhere in a private castle owned by Philip II of Spain?
The renaissance in print
Of course, there were already fakes entering the market, but an answer far closer to the truth is print, now also the subject of an exhibition at Museum M in Leuven. It focusses on Antwerpenaar Hieronymus Cock, the most important printmaker of the 16th century. Together with his wife, he was one of the first in northern Europe to establish a publishing company for prints.
More than 200 rare and fragile works on paper offer a broad overview of the output of Aux Quatre Vents (At the Sign of the Four Winds), the publishing house Cock founded in 1548. “He had chosen the right time and the right place,” says curator Joris Van Grieken, a conservator at the Royal Library of Belgium’s print gallery.
“Antwerp was, with its 100,000 inhabitants, the largest and wealthiest city in north-western Europe – meaning a big market for local and international trade,” he continues. “It was also a magnet for artistic talent, with about 300 professional painters and a good choice of engravers and etchers to turn paintings into prints.”
Furthermore, Cock convinced the Italian master engraver Georgio Ghisi to settle in Antwerp for several years in the 1550s, a blessing for junior engravers who could study with him.
All this aside, we wouldn’t speak of Hieronymus Cock today if it weren’t for his commercial brilliance. “He knew how to target an audience, small or big, rich or poor,” explains Van Grieken. “He had many wealthy clients but also produced large amounts of cheap devotional print, for a broad public. Also, the vulgar scenes of Hieronymus Bosch were in large demand. For mass production, he kept the price low: You could buy an individual print for a price equal to the daily wage of an unschooled labourer.”
Cock asked the soon-to-be-famous Pieter Bruegel the Elder to sign his drawings with “Bosch” because he knew they would sell better. Commissioned by the publisher, Bruegel would design dozens of prints, spreading both their reputations across Europe. “Their long-term partnership was a win-win situation,” says Van Grieken.
Bruegel took advantage of Cock’s large artistic, political and business network. It included, for instance, Antwerp printer-publisher Christopher Plantin and cardinal Granvelle, not only one of the most influential politicians under the reign of Charles V but also a big admirer of the fine arts and a prime investor in Cock’s prints.
The pioneering way in which Cock defined and exploited the public image of artists is only one of the seven central themes of the exhibition, which gives the visitor a clearer perspective on a world that slowly opened itself up, thanks to these new printing methods, which could reproduce images of faraway landscapes, historical battles, architectural monuments, country maps and so on.
Even the impressive funeral procession held in Brussels in 1558 in honour of Charles V comes to life: The prestigious 12 metre-long etching was designed by Cock and coloured entirely by hand.
