Hans I Liefrinck (c. 1515-1573). Antwerp Printmaker and Publisher in a Dynasty of Printmakers

This doctoral research fits within the contemporary development in art historical research of focussing on a publisher and his production in a specific sociocultural context, rather than to study the isolated output of an artist. The prints published by the Liefrinck family have never been thoroughly examined as a whole and are therefore a gap in the existing scholarly literature on Netherlandish printmaking. This project will study the output, family and milieu of the Antwerp printmaker and publisher Hans I Liefrinck (c. 1515-1573). On the one hand, this research aims to map the prints that were cut, engraved, printed or published by Hans Liefrinck. These prints will be studied on an iconographic, stylistic, and technical level in order to evaluate the profile and the artistic and economic importance of Liefrinck’s publishing house. On the other hand, this project intends to create a clear image of his family and his position in the socioeconomic context of 16th-century Antwerp and Europe.