Claes Jansz. Visscher

Draftsman, engraver, cartographer and publisher.

Claes Visscher of Amsterdam was a talented draughtsman and etcher, and a leading publisher of prints, maps and topographical views. He is also known as Nicolas Joannes Piscator and Nicolas Joannis Visscher II, after his father who lived ca. 1550–1612. Their trademark was a fisherman, after their name and thus the Latin nickname Piscator. The fisherman was strategically placed somewhere near water, or if the subject was a landscape without water then often a figure walking with a fishing rod can be seen.

Visscher learned the art of etching and printing from his father, and helped grow the family printing and mapmaking business to one of the largest in his time. He primarily etched and published landscapes, portraits and maps. He made around two hundred etchings and exercised considerable influence on the development of Dutch landscape art. He also published a number of important Dutch picture Bibles during the late 1630s and 1640s. His most successful picture Bible was Theatrum Biblicum, first published in 1639. Rather than an illustrated Bible it is a compilation of prints that presents Scripture in pictorial form. The work contains over 450 Old and New Testament prints, mostly accompanied by a brief Latin distich. Replacing the textual narrative with a visual one proved to be highly lucrative to Visscher.