12. Jacob Matham (1571-1631)
after Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617)
The Planets (complete set)

(click on image to print)
Matham, The Planets

The Planets (complete set)

Other Images:

Engravings, 1597, 120 x 77 mm., Bartsch 149-155, Hollstein 226-232 i/ii, ex collection: J. Peoli (Lugt 2020). Superb and even complete set, before the address of Janssonius on plate 1, on laid paper with even margins of about 7 mm. all around on all prints; old tape marks at the upper corners of plate 4. The prints are rare. Only two from the set, in trimmed impressions, have appeared at auction in over 20 years. The planets here, of course, are represented by the gods for whom they were named, together with their attributes and astrological signs. The grouping is of a pre-Copernican system in which Earth is the center (therefore not a planet), but both the sun and the moon are considered such. Obviously, such images are more concerned with mythology and astrology than with astronomy, but Copernicus’ theory was not actually published until about1543 and was still highly controversial for many years afterward. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (the latter now downgraded and no longer identified as a planet) were not discovered until 200 years later, and so the planets, for Goltzius and Matham (and other artists of the time) were Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon.