inscribed ‘Siet hier het Beeltenis geboren in dees Stadt […] Soo lanck des Hemels blau aen t Firmament sal staen’ (in the plate)
engraving, watermark five-pointed foolscap
28.6 x 20.1 cm (plate); 29.9 x 21.3 cm (sheet)
Hollstein 134 [1], this state not recorded
A very strong proof impression, printing with a lot of plate tone, the supporting lines still visible, there are some scattered foxmarks in the edges, but the sheet is otherwise very good condition

This print is a previously unrecorded proof before Savery’s signature and the initials of the author responsible for the verse below the portrait. The identity of the sitter is not revealed in the print’s verse and remained unknown until Dieuwke de Hoop Scheffer identified the man on the basis of the drawing in front of him which shows a design for the Amsterdam town hall. [2] The architects who worked on its design were Jacob van Campen (1596-1657), Daniel van Stalpaert (1615-1676) and Jacob Vennekool (1632-1673). As the portrayed person is not Van Campen (whose likeness we know well from other portraits) nor Van Stalpaert (as he did not die at a young age as the verse under the print suggest about the sitter), De Hoop Scheffer convincingly suggested that the portrait must be that of Jacob Vennekool. De Hoop Scheffer also connected the print to a drawing showing a portrait of Vennekool which was formerly in the collection of E.J. Otto. [3] While few drawings by Vennekool appear to have survived, he is known to have supplied the designs to a volume of engravings depicting the then newly build Amsterdam town hall in Afbeelding van 't stadt huys van Amsterdam, In dartigh Coopere Plaaten, geordineert door Jacob van Campen; en Geteeckent door Iacob Vennekool, published in Amsterdam in 1661.

[1] K.G. Boon, 'Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts. Ca. 1450-1700. Volume XXIV. Salomon Savery to Gillis van Scheyndel', Amsterdam, 1980, p. 63.
[2] D. de Hoop Scheffer, ‘Een portret van Jacob Vennekool?’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, 23, no. 1 (1975), p. 12.
[3] D. de Hoop Scheffer, 'op. cit.', fig. 2.