Maria Tesselschade Visscher

Maria Tesselschade Visscher

Engraving of Maria Tesselschade Visscher by Johannes Körnlein and Cornelis Ploos van Amstel in 1770 after a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius in 1612
Born Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher
(1594-03-25)March 25, 1594
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Died June 20, 1649(1649-06-20) (aged 55)
Nationality Dutch
Known for Poetry
Engraving
Movement Dutch Golden Age
Spouse(s) Allard Crombalch (1623-1634)
Elected Muiderkring

Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher, also called Maria Tesselschade Roemersdochter Visscher or Tesselschade (March 25, 1594 – June 20, 1649) was a Dutch poet and engraver.

Life

Tesselschade was born in Amsterdam, the youngest of three daughters of poet and humanist Roemer Visscher.[1] She was given the name Tesselschade ("Damage on Tessel"), because her father lost a ship near the Dutch island Texel on Christmas Day 1593, three months before her birth, to remember that 'wordly wealth could be gone instantly.'

Engraved rummer attributed to Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher

She and her sister Anna Visscher were the only women members of the Muiderkring, the group of Dutch Golden Age intellectuals who met at Muiden Castle. She is often characterised as a muse of the group, and attracted the admiration of its members such as its organiser Hooft, Huygens, Barlaeus, Bredero, Heinsius, Vondel and Jacob Cats.

In their correspondence, she is described as attractive, musically talented, and a skilled translator and commentator from Latin, Greek and Italian.[2] They also praised her skill at singing, painting, carving, etching on glass and tapestry work.[3] The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam has an example of her engraving work, a römer drinking glass engraved with the motto Sic Soleo Amicos ("this is how I treat my friends").[4]

In 1623, she married a ship's officer, Allard Crombalch. After he died in 1634, Huygens and Barlaeus proposed marriage to her, offers she rejected.

In remembrance of Tesselschade there are several streets named after her, such as the Tesselschadestraat or Tesselschadelaan in Alkmaar, Eindhoven, Amsterdam, Zwolle, Leiden and Leeuwarden.

References

  1. ↑ "MARIA TESSELSCHADE ROEMER VISSCHER (1593-1649)". Canadian Association for the Advancement of Netherlandic Studies. Issue XI, 1990.
  2. ↑ The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, Simon Schama, HarperCollins, 1987, ISBN 0-00-217801-X
  3. ↑ History of Holland, George Edmundson, Cambridge University Press, 1922 ebook, ebooksread.com
  4. ↑ "Roemer, Anonymous, c. 1625 - c. 1650". Rijksmuseum.

Further reading

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