Jacob Faber
Encyclopedia
Jacob Faber or Jakob Faber, also known as the "Master IF" from the monogram
on his prints, was a formschneider ("block-cutter") of woodcut
s and metalcut
s, engraver, designer of decorative prints (alphabets, borders etc.) and publisher. Faber was active in the period 1516-1550, in Basel
in Switzerland and subsequently in France.
Jacob Faber is a German form of what was presumably his original name, Jacques Lefèvre, a common French name – the equivalent of John Smith – shared by several other figures active in similar circles at the period; the main ones are mentioned below. Faber was especially noted for the many metalcut
title-page borders and book illustrations he made to designs by Hans Holbein the Younger
in Basel in the 1520s.
by March 1516, and remained there until returning to France in 1524, to Paris and perhaps later Lyons, where he was used by the local publishers in the 1540s. He was associated with major Reformation figures, and may have become a Huguenot
himself, which would agree with a move to Lyons, unlike Paris a city with a strong Huguenot presence. He may be the "Jacques Lefèvre, dit le tailleur d'histoires" ("called the cutter of stories") accused of heresy in Paris in 1534-35, but unlike 17 others at the time, not executed. He seems to have lived until about 1550.
The "enterprising" and mobile Faber undertook a variety of roles, but all were essentially within the book publishing industry; almost all his images are for books. He produced illustrations himself in all three techniques then used for book illustration: woodcut, engraving and metalcut, but appears always to have used the designs of artists, except perhaps for decorative work. He was the main producer of metalcut plates for the important publisher Johann Froben in Basel. He acted as a middle-man for larger publishers, according to Peter Parshall, and "eventually operated as an independent agent commissioning and trading blocks and plates with French and Swiss publishers". In this capacity he worked with Hans Holbein
, Hans Lützelburger
, and others. He was "also in close contact with major figures in the Reformation movement".
His habit of signing merely with his initials ensured that his identity sank into obscurity, until he was identified again in the mid-19th century and eventually recognized as the major interpreter of the younger Holbein's designs in the medium of metalcuts, though when left to his own devices, his abilities as a designer were mediocre - "wretched stuff", according to Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints at the British Museum
.
, at first exclusively. His early technique was relatively crude, using long parallel hatching
lines for shadows that took little account of the volumes of figures and space. However, his work improved rapidly, presumably for two reasons. Firstly, Holbein, who was himself progressing markedly in his grasp of printmaking, probably took a closer personal interest in Faber's execution, after at first merely handing over his designs and leaving the style to the cutter. Secondly, the skilled woodcutter Hans Lützelburger
arrived in Basel in 1522, bringing with him technical and artistic standards that may have stimulated Faber's own work. Lützelburger possessed a technique capable of doing justice for the first time to Holbein's highly detailed and challenging designs.
Faber's metalcut of the Title Page Border with Children and an Old Couple deployed shorter and more varied hatching than that of his earliest work, resulting in a greater roundness of forms. His progress continued in the Title Page Border with Tantalus, which distinguished between surface textures. Faber also began placing light and shadow more calculatingly, achieving enhanced visual and spatial effects. His heightened conception of space showed itself in his Title Page Border with Greek and Roman Philosophers and Authors of Antiquity in 1522 and reached a peak in the last metalcut he executed for Holbein in Basel, the Title Page Border with Christ as Intercessor before God the Father, the Four Symbols of the Evangelists and the Mission of the Apostles, in 1523. A metalcut of King Henry VIII in council, once said to be after Holbein, signed "IF", was used in English books, first appearing in 1548 in Hall's chronicle
and subsequently being used in Foxe's Book of Martyrs
.
Faber and other metalcutters may have influenced Lützelburger in turn, challenging him to further refine his technique. The metalcut possessed an advantage over the woodcut in close hatching because fine print lines between the furrows in the wood would sometimes break, marring the print. Lützelburger responded with technical advances of his own, achieving a greater subtlety in the woodcut medium. This period was one of revolution in all aspects of printmaking in Basel.
, when at least three figures known by this name were active at the same time.
Monogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...
on his prints, was a formschneider ("block-cutter") of woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
s and metalcut
Metalcut
Metalcut is a relief printmaking technique, belonging to the category of old master prints. It was almost entirely restricted to the period from about 1450 to 1540, and mostly to the region around the Rhine in Northern Europe, the Low Countries, Germany, France and Switzerland; the technique...
s, engraver, designer of decorative prints (alphabets, borders etc.) and publisher. Faber was active in the period 1516-1550, in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
in Switzerland and subsequently in France.
Jacob Faber is a German form of what was presumably his original name, Jacques Lefèvre, a common French name – the equivalent of John Smith – shared by several other figures active in similar circles at the period; the main ones are mentioned below. Faber was especially noted for the many metalcut
Metalcut
Metalcut is a relief printmaking technique, belonging to the category of old master prints. It was almost entirely restricted to the period from about 1450 to 1540, and mostly to the region around the Rhine in Northern Europe, the Low Countries, Germany, France and Switzerland; the technique...
title-page borders and book illustrations he made to designs by Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
in Basel in the 1520s.
Life
Faber was born in France or Lorraine, the latter information coming from a reference in a letter by Erasmus of 1524. Possibly after training in Paris, he was in Basel in Switzerland working for Johann FrobenJohann Froben
Johann Froben, in Latin: Johannes Frobenius , was a famous printer and publisher in Basel...
by March 1516, and remained there until returning to France in 1524, to Paris and perhaps later Lyons, where he was used by the local publishers in the 1540s. He was associated with major Reformation figures, and may have become a Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
himself, which would agree with a move to Lyons, unlike Paris a city with a strong Huguenot presence. He may be the "Jacques Lefèvre, dit le tailleur d'histoires" ("called the cutter of stories") accused of heresy in Paris in 1534-35, but unlike 17 others at the time, not executed. He seems to have lived until about 1550.
The "enterprising" and mobile Faber undertook a variety of roles, but all were essentially within the book publishing industry; almost all his images are for books. He produced illustrations himself in all three techniques then used for book illustration: woodcut, engraving and metalcut, but appears always to have used the designs of artists, except perhaps for decorative work. He was the main producer of metalcut plates for the important publisher Johann Froben in Basel. He acted as a middle-man for larger publishers, according to Peter Parshall, and "eventually operated as an independent agent commissioning and trading blocks and plates with French and Swiss publishers". In this capacity he worked with Hans Holbein
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
, Hans Lützelburger
Hans Lützelburger
Hans Lützelburger , also known as Hans Franck, was a German blockcutter for woodcuts, regarded as one of the finest of his day. He cut the blocks but as far as is known was not an artist himself...
, and others. He was "also in close contact with major figures in the Reformation movement".
His habit of signing merely with his initials ensured that his identity sank into obscurity, until he was identified again in the mid-19th century and eventually recognized as the major interpreter of the younger Holbein's designs in the medium of metalcuts, though when left to his own devices, his abilities as a designer were mediocre - "wretched stuff", according to Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
.
Metalcuts
The earliest known metalcut produced in Basel is from a book printed by Froben in 1518, when Faber had already been working for Froben for two years; this is very likely to be by Faber, who in any case soon became Froben's main cutter in metal. Between 1520 and 1523, Faber executed metalcuts designed by Hans Holbein the YoungerHans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
, at first exclusively. His early technique was relatively crude, using long parallel hatching
Hatching
Hatching is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing closely spaced parallel lines...
lines for shadows that took little account of the volumes of figures and space. However, his work improved rapidly, presumably for two reasons. Firstly, Holbein, who was himself progressing markedly in his grasp of printmaking, probably took a closer personal interest in Faber's execution, after at first merely handing over his designs and leaving the style to the cutter. Secondly, the skilled woodcutter Hans Lützelburger
Hans Lützelburger
Hans Lützelburger , also known as Hans Franck, was a German blockcutter for woodcuts, regarded as one of the finest of his day. He cut the blocks but as far as is known was not an artist himself...
arrived in Basel in 1522, bringing with him technical and artistic standards that may have stimulated Faber's own work. Lützelburger possessed a technique capable of doing justice for the first time to Holbein's highly detailed and challenging designs.
Faber's metalcut of the Title Page Border with Children and an Old Couple deployed shorter and more varied hatching than that of his earliest work, resulting in a greater roundness of forms. His progress continued in the Title Page Border with Tantalus, which distinguished between surface textures. Faber also began placing light and shadow more calculatingly, achieving enhanced visual and spatial effects. His heightened conception of space showed itself in his Title Page Border with Greek and Roman Philosophers and Authors of Antiquity in 1522 and reached a peak in the last metalcut he executed for Holbein in Basel, the Title Page Border with Christ as Intercessor before God the Father, the Four Symbols of the Evangelists and the Mission of the Apostles, in 1523. A metalcut of King Henry VIII in council, once said to be after Holbein, signed "IF", was used in English books, first appearing in 1548 in Hall's chronicle
Edward Hall
Edward Hall , English chronicler and lawyer, was born about the end of the 15th century, being a son of John Hall of Northall, Shropshire....
and subsequently being used in Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe, more accurately Acts and Monuments, is an account from a Protestant point of view of Christian church history and martyrology...
.
Faber and other metalcutters may have influenced Lützelburger in turn, challenging him to further refine his technique. The metalcut possessed an advantage over the woodcut in close hatching because fine print lines between the furrows in the wood would sometimes break, marring the print. Lützelburger responded with technical advances of his own, achieving a greater subtlety in the woodcut medium. This period was one of revolution in all aspects of printmaking in Basel.
Other Jacob Fabers in the Northern Renaissance
The name Jakob or Jacob Faber may mean several people, especially in the context of the Northern RenaissanceNorthern Renaissance
The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. Before 1450 Italian Renaissance humanism had little influence outside Italy. From the late 15th century the ideas spread around Europe...
, when at least three figures known by this name were active at the same time.
- Jacques Lefèvre d'ÉtaplesJacques Lefèvre d'ÉtaplesJacques Lefèvre d’Étaples or Jacob Faber Stapulensis was a French theologian and humanist. He was a precursor of the Protestant movement in France. The "d’Étaples" was not part of his name as such, but used to distinguish him from Jacques Lefèvre of Deventer, a less significant contemporary, a...
, (c.1455-1536) French Renaissance humanist and theologian, called "of Etaples" to avoid confusion with the others, and often referred to by the hybrid German-Latin name "Jacob" or "Jakob Faber Stapulensis". He had a sometimes tense relationship with Erasmus, whose work on Biblical translation and in theology closely paralleled his own.
- Jacques Lefèvre/Jacob Faber, of DeventerDeventerDeventer is a municipality and city in the Salland region of the Dutch province of Overijssel. Deventer is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, but also has a small part of its territory on the west bank. In 2005 the municipality of Bathmen Deventer is a municipality and city in...
, (1473-after 1517), a Netherlandish Renaissance humanist and friend and correspondent of Erasmus, and of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples. He worked most of his life as a schoolmaster.
- Jakob Faber, an alchemist working in BohemiaBohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
in 1585.