Paulus van Vianen

Paulus van Vianen (* around 1570 in Utrecht, † 1613 in Prague) was a Dutch goldsmith and medalist.

Life and works

Paulus van Vianen was born about 1570 in Utrecht and came from a family of artists who produced many goldsmiths. Already ten years old his father Willem van Vianen Eerstensz gave him at the Utrecht gold and silversmith Bruno Ellardsz van Leydenberch (around 1530-1604 ) and then at his brother Cornelis van Leydenberch into teaching. After living in France and Germany, van Vianen also went to Italy, where he was reported, according to Sandrart by envious at the Inquisition and even imprisoned. However, through a mediating officer of Emperor Rudolf II, at the Hof van Vianen should work later, he was able to regain his freedom. In the 1590s van Vianen was active in Munich, where he received also the civil law and was admitted through the mediation of Duke Maximilian, for whom he probably worked at this time as a master in the Munich guild of goldsmiths. In 1601 he went into the service of the Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in Salzburg. 1603 he left Salzburg to go to Prague, his last station, where he worked as an imperial chamber Goldschmied at Rudolf II until he was probably carried off in 1613 in the wake of an epidemic of the plague.

Sculptural work and stylistic development

Paulus van Vianen mainly created rather small -scale reliefs, medallions, medals and vessels, where his specialty was blowing work in silver. In his time in Munich, created especially plaques with predominantly mythological and biblical motifs, the style of the former Nuremberg goldsmith were close, so a stay in this city, it is assumed in Munich before his time. His figural evidence of an increasing Italian influence, which developed in the Prague time through the influence of his local fellow artists towards a synthesis of Italian and Nordic ( Dutch ) means of expression. This is based on the common origin of many Prague artists from the Netherlands and their training in Italy, which gave rise to a " specific Rudolphinian art." His figural representations were influenced at that time by the sculptor Adriaen de Vries and of the painters Bartholomäus Spranger and Hans von Aachen while he responded in his landscape art on impressions of Pieter Roelandt Savery and Stevens.

Drawings

For a fact the visual arts branch associated artists many drawings of Paulus van Vianen are unusually preserved. Especially during his stays in Salzburg and Prague emerged both mythological / biblical- influenced drawings, as well as a significant number of landscapes. While the figurative works well can be considered as preparatory work and studies on plastic works of art for the most part, most of the landscape drawings are probably simple expression of an extraordinarily high level of interest for nature and therefore be regarded as separate works.