{{Short description|Dutch mapmaker (1587–1652)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}} [[File:Decapitation of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt - Onthoofding van Oldenbarnevelt (Iustitie aen Ian van Oldenbarnevelt geschiet)(1619, Claes Jansz. Visscher).jpg|thumb|right|300px|Claes Jansz. Visscher, ''Illustration of the decapitation of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt'', Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 1619]] [[File:Sitting Leo Belgicus - Visscher.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Claes Jansz. Visscher, ''Leo Belgicus'', 1611]]
'''Claes Janszoon Visscher''' (1587 – 19 June 1652) was a Dutch Golden Age draughtsman, engraver, mapmaker, and publisher. He was the founder of the successful Visscher family mapmaking business. The firm that he established in Amsterdam would be passed down his generations until it was sold to Peter Schenk.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Kevin J. |title=Maps Through the Ages |publisher=White Star Publishers |pages=47–49 |language=en}}</ref>
== Early life and family == Claes Janszoon Visscher was born in 1587 in Amsterdam, where he lived throughout his life. He was the son of Claes Jansz. Visscher I ({{circa|1550}}–1612), who taught him etching and printing. He was also known by the Latinized names Nicolas Joannes Piscator and Nicolas Joannis Visscher.<ref>[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/81246 Claes Jansz. Visscher II] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305210808/https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/81246 |date=5 March 2016 }} in the RKD</ref><ref>[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/81245 Claes Jansz. Visscher I] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203064148/https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/81245 |date=3 February 2020 }} in the RKD</ref>
He first established his company in Amsterdam within a district known for publishing maps; the area saw fellow contemporary mapmakers such as Jodocus Hondius and Pieter van den Keere. There is also a belief that Hondius might have apprenticed Visscher.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Kevin J. |title=Maps Through the Ages |publisher=White Star Publishers |pages=47–49 |language=en}}</ref>
Mapmaking and publishing became a family occupation. His son, Nicolaes Visscher I (1618–1679), and his grandson, Nicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702), also became mapmakers on the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam.<ref name=":1" /> The business he established remained in the family for several generations until it was sold to Peter Schenk.<ref name=":1">[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/375229 Nicolaes Visscher II] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190615183458/https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/375229 |date=15 June 2019 }} in the RKD</ref><ref name=":0" />
== Biography == The times were with the Visschers for other reasons; due to the Protestant reformation, the older Bibles with their "Roman Catholic" illustrations were seen as outdated and apocryphal, but to liven up the new Protestant Bibles for the less well-read clergy, the Visschers produced illustrated maps and even landscapes of the ''places'' in the Bible. This became a very successful family business, with collaboration with many respected draughtsmen of the day. A new translation of the Bible was underway in the Netherlands, and until then, the new German translation done by Johannes Piscator, published in 1602–1604, was translated into Dutch.<ref>[http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/brui007stat01_01/brui007stat01_01_0016.php ''De Statenbijbel en zijn voorgangers.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025211928/http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/brui007stat01_01/brui007stat01_01_0016.php |date=25 October 2012 }}, C.C. de Bruin, A.W. Sijthoff, Leiden, (1937) – text online in the DBNL</ref> Though probably not a relative, his Bible translation was accepted by the Dutch Staten-General in 1602, which only lent more publicity and authenticity to the "Fisher" name.
The trademark of the Visschers was a fisherman, as he often published under the name Piscator. In his maps, a small fisherman would be strategically placed somewhere near water.<ref name=":0" /> If the subject was a landscape without a stream or pond, then often a figure walking with a fishing rod can be seen. Their map plates were reused for a century by other printers who unknowingly copied the entire plates, including the tell-tale fishermen. Observant scholars are thus able to trace the provenance of Bibles, maps, and landscapes from these signs.
Aside from Bibles, Claes Visscher II primarily etched and published landscapes, portraits, and maps. He etched over 200 plates and his maps included elaborate original borders. He was a publisher of prints by Esaias van de Velde, and David Vinckboons, and was a big influence on Roelant Roghman<ref>[http://www.provincialeatlas-nh.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=57 Provincial atlas of North Holland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724163420/http://www.provincialeatlas-nh.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=57 |date=24 July 2011 }} in the North Holland Archives</ref> and on his sister Geertruyd.<ref>[http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/DVN/lemmata/data/RoghmanGeertruid Geertruid Roghman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926160329/http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/RoghmanGeertruid |date=26 September 2022 }} in the Netherlands female lexicon of history</ref>
== Death == Visscher died in 1652 at the age of 64.<ref name="ref1">{{cite web|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/claes-jansz-visscher-2|title=Claes Jansz. Visscher Biography|website=Answers.com |access-date=29 January 2010|archive-date=8 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108095600/http://www.answers.com/topic/claes-jansz-visscher-2|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Claes Jansz Visscher - detail kaart van NL.jpg|Detail of a map from 1630 with the "Fisher logo". The signature is both the fisherman drawing and the text "by C.J.Visscher in the Kalverstraet in Amsterdam. File:Claes Jansz Visscher - detail Kerck tot Sloten.png|Fisher added to print of drawing by Geertruydt Roghman. File:London panorama, 1616b.jpg|Visscher panorama, panorama of London, 1616 File:Magna Carta Mundi 1670 (Nicolaus Ioannis Vischerius).jpg|A 1617 untitled double hemisphere world map created by Claes Jansz Visscher File:Map of Paris by Claes Jansz. Visscher - Harold B. Lee Library.jpg|1618 map of Paris by Claes Janszoon Visscher File:Claes Janszoon Visscher - Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica Ac Hydrographica Tabula Autore'.jpg|1652 world map by Claes Janszoon Visscher </gallery>
== References == {{reflist}} * [http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_artists/00018498?lang=nl Claes Jansz Visscher] with some etchings in the Rijksmuseum
==External links== {{Commons category|Claes Jansz. Visscher (II)}} *[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/65202/rec/17 ''Vermeer and The Delft School''], a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Claes Jansz. Visscher (see index) *''[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/97318 Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints]'', a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Claes Jansz. Visscher (see index)
{{Authority control (arts)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Visscher, Claes Jansz.}} Category:1587 births Category:1652 deaths Category:Dutch draughtsmen Category:17th-century Dutch cartographers Category:Pictorial map artists Category:Engravers from Amsterdam Category:Dutch Golden Age printmakers