Portrait of an instrument-maker:Wenceslaus Hollar's engraving of Elias Allen.
Among the many engravings of landscapes, buildings, portraits and other illustrations produced by the seventeenth-century artist Wenceslaus Hollar, there are a small number of images of contemporary men of science. Of particular interest is the portrait of the instrument-maker Elias Allen, both because portraits of men of his social status were extremely uncommon at this time, and also because the cluttered mass of instruments shown in the image presents a picture wholly unlike other portraits of the period. The first part of this paper explores the position of portraiture as inherently linked to nobility, and seeks to present an explanation as to why the original oil painting of Allen (made by Hendrik van der Borcht and no longer extant) might have been made. The second part looks at the image itself, and discusses possible reasons for Hollar's production of the engraving some twenty years after the original.
School of English, University of Exeter, Queen's Building, The Queen's Drive, Exeter EX4 4QH, UK.
Hester
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Higton
D004739:England; D004741:Engraving and Engravings / Q000266:history*; D004864:Equipment and Supplies / Q000266:history*; D049670:History, 17th Century; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D011173:Portraits as Topic / Q000266:history*