Der Apostel Paulus

At the age of 17, Flemish graphic artist Johan Wierix, decades after Dürer’s death, produced an equilateral copy of his engraving “Der Apostel Paulus” (“The Apostle Paul”) in 1514. In order to demonstrate his ability, he clearly oriented himself to the template. Paul stands upright in front of a piece of the Wall, is wrapped in a long garment and holds a broken book in his hands. At his feet lies the sword, the instrument of his martyrdom. The apostle’s gaze, whose head is accentuated by a beam nimbus, sweeps into the distance. While dating and monogram are reminiscent of Dürer as the spiritual creator of the image idea, references to the copyist and the time of origin are integrated with the name abbreviation “IH • W” and the characteristic age indication of the Wierix brothers, here “Æ17.” Mauquoy-Hendrickx lists four states of the record: with the sign Dürers and Wierix ', with the address Claes Jansz. Visschers, with the number “3” and with the address of the publisher Luigi Guidotti in Bologna in the second half of the 18th century (cf. Mauquoy-Hendrickx II. 179,973).