3755 - Matthäus Merian the Elder, View of Prague

Matthäus Merian the Elder, View of Prague View of the city situated on both banks of the Vltava, featuring Hradčany and St Vitus Cathedral; five coats of arms in the sky, inscribed above the image, Copperplate engraving on two sheets, c. 1650, slight signs of wear, framed with a passe-partout and behind glass; dimensions of the image excluding text approx. 23.3 x 69 cm. Artist’s details: Swiss copperplate engraver, bookseller and publisher (1593 Basel to 1650 Schwalbach), 1606-09: apprentice to the copperplate engraver Dietrich Meyer and the stained-glass artist Christof Murer in Zurich; 1610: with Friedrich Brentel in Strasbourg; 1625: took over the art dealership of his father-in-law Johann Theodor de Bry in Frankfurt am Main; after his death, his sons Matthäus the Younger and Caspar, and later their descendants, continued to run the publishing house under the name ‘Merians Erben’ until 1727 and completed his major works ‘Topographia Germaniae’ and ‘Theatrum Europaeum’, Source: Thieme-Becker and the internet.