Jan Saenredam

{{Infobox artist | name = Jan Pieterszoon Saenredam | image = Jan Saenredam 001.jpg | caption = Saenredam engraving, late 16th century | birth_date = {{circa|1565}} | birth_place = [[Zaandam]], [[County of Holland]] | death_date = 6 April 1607 | death_place = [[Assendelft]], [[Dutch Republic]] | burial_place = St. Adolphus Church, Assendelft | known_for = Engravings of allegorical, mythological, and biblical subjects | training = [[Hendrick Goltzius]] | movement = [[Northern Mannerism]] | spouse = Anna Pauwelsdochter | children = [[Pieter Jansz Saenredam]] | occupation = Engraver; printmaker; cartographer }} [[File:Jan Saenredam14.jpg|thumb|''[[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] and [[Cupid]]'']] [[File:Jan Saenredam00.jpg|thumb|''[[Parable of the Ten Virgins|The Foolish Virgins]]'']]

'''Jan Pieterszoon''' ({{abbr|abbr.|abbreviated patronymic surname}} '''Pietersz.''') '''Saenredam''' (c. 1565 – 6 April 1607) was a Dutch [[Northern Mannerist]] painter, printmaker in [[engraving]], and cartographer, and father of the painter of church interiors, [[Pieter Jansz Saenredam]]. He is noted for the many allegorical images he created from [[classical mythology]] and the [[Bible]].

==Early life and education== Saenredam was born in [[Zaandam]]. As an orphan, Jan lived with his uncle, Pieter de Jongh, a bailiff in [[Assendelft]] who first sent him to learn basket weaving as a profession.<ref name=DeBie>[[Het Gulden Cabinet]] p 498</ref>

Being an apt student, he was taught reading and writing, but astonished his teachers when he proved already so accomplished in this that he decorated his texts with curled decorations. An example of his penmanship could once be seen on display at Assum House near Heemskerk (residence of the Lord of Assendelft), which was his copywork of the ten commandments.<ref name="DeBie" />

Despite a decision that he follow a career in a trade or farming, he showed such artistic talent that he started as an apprentice cartographer. His first map is dated 1589 and is of the province of Holland, which could be seen in the city book of ''Guiccardijn'' (referring to a 1593 work by [[Lodovico Guicciardini]] called ''The Description of the Low Countries'').<ref name="DeBie" />

He was visited by a lawyer called Spoorwater tot Assendelft, who convinced his guardian to let him apply his gift, and thus young Saenredam was sent to learn drawing from [[Hendrick Goltzius]] in [[Haarlem]], where he became a master at the age of 24 (in 1589).<ref name="DeBie" />

After working for some time with Goltzius, he encountered the almost inevitable professional rivalry and jealousy, prompting his departure to work in [[Amsterdam]] for two years.<ref name="DeBie" />

== Career == He then returned to Assendelft where he married and set up his own workshop. His first engraving was of the 12 apostles after a drawing by [[Karel van Mander]].<ref name="DeBie2">[[Het Gulden Cabinet]] p 499</ref> He produced prints after Goltzius, [[Abraham Bloemaert]], [[Cornelis van Haarlem]], [[Polidoro da Caravaggio]], and his own invention.<ref name="DeBie2" /> He made over 170 plates of which the last one was a history of [[Diana and Callisto]] by [[Paulus Moreelse]] in 1606.<ref name="DeBie2" /> Two plates he was working on, after drawings by [[Bartholomeus Spranger]] and [[Willem Thibaut]], were finished later by [[Jacob Matham]].<ref name="DeBie2" />

According to the [[Rijksmuseum]], he returned in 1595 from Amsterdam to Assendelft, where he married Anna Pauwelsdochter ({{abbr|abbr.|abbreviated patronymic surname}} Pauwelsdr.).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_artists/00018361?lang=nl |title=Rijksmuseum |access-date=2009-02-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010001657/http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_artists/00018361?lang=nl |archive-date=2012-10-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Death == He died of typhus on April 6, 1607, and was buried in the choir of the Saint Adolphus church at Assendelft, with the gravestone inscription ''Ioannis Saenredam Sculptoris celeberrimi''.<ref name="DeBie2" /> He died in [[Assendelft]], aged about 41.

Jan left his wife a sizeable estate as a result of lucrative investments in the [[Dutch East India Company]].<ref>[https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-C-217 Rijksmuseum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609050159/http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/collectie/zoeken/asset.jsp?id=SK-C-217&lang=nl |date=2011-06-09 }}</ref>

==References== {{notelist}} {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}} * {{Art UK bio}} *[http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Saenredam.html Spaightwood Galleries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225160133/http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Saenredam.html |date=2017-02-25 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saenredam, Jan}} [[Category:1560s births]] [[Category:1607 deaths]] [[Category:16th-century Dutch engravers]] [[Category:17th-century Dutch engravers]] [[Category:Artists from Zaanstad]] [[Category:Renaissance engravers]]