The birth of a calf with a disfigured head, somewhere in Germany, was an excellent news story to make a woodcut out of, and distribute on a large scale. Liefrinck, who was a “figure cutter”, printer, […] Read more »

The Thin Kitchen is a counterpart to the fat kitchen. It was a very popular scene, here engraved by Pieter van der Heyden, after a drawing by Pieter I Brueghel .The fat man seems to have stumbled into […] Read more »

Here we are confronted with a typical print with a double meaning. It is an erotically charged scene of drunken pairs who are engaged in lechery. Under the print there is a caution: “Wine and women […] Read more »

Abraham Verhoeven was the first in Europe to publish a newspaper about the most important events at home and abroad. This newspaper appeared every other week in Antwerp. Here an episode is relayed about […] Read more »

In 1648 a definitive peace treaty was signed between various regions in Europe who waged war because of disparate interpretations of their Christian faith: “Catholics” versus “Protestants”. On […] Read more »

A fun everyday scene in which the wealthy citizens of Antwerp, decked out in luxuriant clothing, bought poultry at a market stall.

For many centuries fish was an essential component of the diet of an average Antwerp citizen. The major part of the fish supply came from the river Scheldt and the sale of fish occurred along the roadstead. […] Read more »

Here Asia is depicted, not in a purely scientific manner, but rather as a decorative print with a camel, an elephant and centrally a prominent lady with an incense vessel.

Farnese was a Spanish military leader who closed off the access to Antwerp via the river Scheldt with a bridge which rested on small boats. One of the most famous episodes of that battle is the attack […] Read more »

The Archduchess Isabella was the governor or substitute ruler of the Spanish King, under whose authority were the Southern Netherlands and therefore also Antwerp. She succeeded in maintaining a rather […] Read more »